by only one candle, which had been placed on the mantelpiece. In front of the door through which we had come stood the man Poliakoff, appearing even more gigantic from my low viewpoint.
Although his eyes were fixed on Holmes, he was holding a large revolver which was pointed steadily at me.
‘Your friend is awake,’ he said. ‘So I tell you now. You make one move and 1 shoot your friend, then I shoot you.’
‘I cannot see why,’ said Holmes calmly. ‘Our business is not with you. It is with Professor Gregorieff.’
‘Gregorieff,’ repeated the giant. ‘What business do you have with Gregorieff? Are you English police or Kyriloff’s spies? Eh?’
‘We are not,’ said Holmes, patiently, ‘policemen or Kyriloff’s spies. I am a consulting detective who has business with Professor Gregorieff. I mean him no harm and he may well be glad to hear what I have to say. Might I suggest that you call Gregorieff and ask him if he wishes to speak to me? He knows who I am.’
‘If you knew Gregorieff,’ said Poliakoff, ‘you would know where he lives, but you went to the old pawnbroker to find out. You are spies - police or Kyriloff’s.’
My head was beginning to clear and I wondered whether it would be possible to take Poliakoff by the feet, but he stood far enough away to make it impossible. I had done my share on the rugby field, for my school and at Netley Hospital, and had been accounted useful at a low tackle, but I realized that he would have a bullet in me before I could reach him. Although his remarks were directed, it seemed, mainly at Holmes, his pistol pointed unwaveringly at me, and I knew that the slightest movement on my part might cause him to fire.
‘We appear,’ remarked Holmes, who seemed to have come to the same conclusion, ‘to have reached a deadlock, Mr Poliakoff.’
‘A deadlock? You think so?’ said the giant. ‘You think I cannot shoot you both?’
‘Oh, I’m sure that you can,’ agreed Holmes, ‘but I am also sure that you are not so stupid. This is a populous area, my friend, and the sound of two pistol shots, even in this neighbourhood, will draw unwelcome attention.’
The comment had a certain amount of effect. Poliakoff’s eyes shifted momentarily to the heavily curtained window, as though he wondered what lay outside, but his pistol remained pointed steadily at me.
‘You think I need to shoot you?’ he asked, and laughed a soft rumbling chuckle. ‘I could break the pair of you at once with my bare hands. You know my name, but it means nothing to you. I am Nikolai Poliakoff, the unbeaten champion wrestler of Russia. I have beaten every contender from Vienna to Vladivostok. Do not think for one moment that I need a pistol to deal with you.’
Before Holmes could reply, footfalls sounded in the next room and the internal door behind Poliakoff opened.
I had already observed that Holmes had braced one leg, as though preparing for action. The sound of the door opening was sufficient. For a split second it diverted Poliakoff’s attention, but it was enough.
As Poliakoff’s eyes flicked towards the door, Holmes stepped quickly away from me. Instantly the Russian’s attention swung back, but instinctively he swung his weapon towards Holmes. In that tiny moment when the pistol was pointed at neither of us, my friend made his move. He stepped close up to the Russian giant and smashed the gun upwards with a blow of his forearm.
The wrestler swung his other arm as though to grapple Holmes in a bear hug, but Holmes was too fast for him. Still holding the Russian’s right hand with the pistol high in the air, Holmes gripped his opponent’s right elbow with his own right hand.
The Russian’s left arm, which had been about to enclose Holmes’ back, fell away. For a second or two they stood, locked and struggling, then my friend’s features contorted as he found the point he sought in the crook of the wrestler’s elbow, and applied the full force of his powerful fingers.
Despite the length and dexterity of my friend’s fingers, they are the strongest I have ever seen on a man. I have watched Holmes use his bare hands to straighten a poker which the repellent Dr Grimesby Roylott* had doubled in two, so I have some idea of the pressure those long fingers can apply. As a doctor I had some idea of the damage and pain that he was inflicting by his grip on the Russian’s arm.
A long strangled sound of pain escaped from the Russian wrestler’s bearded lips and he lost his grip on the pistol, letting it fall to the floor. Now I came up from the floor, taking him behind the knees with all the force I could muster and any skill that I could remember.
It worked. Giving vent to what sounded like a spate of curses, the Russian toppled over and fell with Holmes on top of him, still relentlessly maintaining his grip on his opponent’s elbow.
As soon as we hit the floor, I loosed the wrestler’s ankles and cast about me for the pistol. It lay close to me and I snatched it up and scrambled to my feet, looking about me to see who had entered the room.
The intruder still stood in the opening of the internal door, his face pale and his eyes wide at the sight of the violence his interruption had unleashed. It was the Russian translator.
‘Nikolai! Nikolai!’ he said. ‘What are you doing? Leave these gentlemen alone, they have come to see me.’
With the presence of this new ally, Holmes felt able to release his grip on the gigantic wrestler, who pulled himself into a corner and slouched against the wall, rubbing his pained elbow and muttering.
Gregorieff advanced towards us as Holmes got up and straightened his dress. The Russian held out a hand to Holmes.
‘Mr Holmes,’ he said. ‘I am so sorry that this has happened, but Nikolai is very protective of me and my sister. He evidently thought you were a danger to us.’
‘He thought,’ said Holmes, ‘that we were policemen or Kyriloff’s spies.’
Gregorieff looked down at Poliakoff and shook his head. ‘I am astonished,’ he said, ‘that you subdued him. I have seen him fight many times, both in the wrestling ring and in situations of danger. I have never known anyone stop him before.’
Holmes smiled. ‘The situation was one which my Japanese master would have called ’subduing the tiger‘, that is, reducing an armed opponent to helplessness, but it required your sudden arrival to distract him so that I could apply the grip. It is extremely painful but leaves no lasting harm. If he lifts nothing heavy with that arm for a day or two he will regain its use.’
Poliakoff had clambered to his feet and now joined us. He held out a hand. ‘I am sorry,’ he said, ‘that I mistook you for Kyriloff’s dogs. Excuse, please, my left hand, but I think I will be cautious with my right.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Gregorieff, ‘you would both like tea while we discuss what brings you here?’
Thirteen
The Interpreter’s Oath
Gregorieff led us into the adjacent room, evidently a sitting room for him and his sister. Unlike its neighbour, it was warm and clean, comfortably furnished and hung with attractive tapestries and prints.
Anna Gregorieff rose to greet us as we entered, and I was able to confirm the skill and accuracy with which Mrs Fordeland had sketched her. Soon we were all seated and Miss Gregorieff was pouring us black tea.
‘Now, Mr Holmes,’ said our host at last, ‘I must apologize to you again for Nikolai’s hastiness, but he fears for our safety.’
‘So do I, Mr Gregorieff, so do I,’ said Sherlock Holmes. ‘That was one of my reasons for coming here today.’
‘But how did you know I would be here?’
‘Since 1 first observed you following Mrs Fordeland, and tracked you to your temporary place at Miss Wortley-Swan’s, I have been aware that you must have another place in London, somewhere you could change from Gregori Gregorieff, interpreter, to the somewhat eccentric character who followed Mrs Fordeland. Where else but among your countrymen in the East End?’
‘And you came to warn me of something, Mr Holmes?’
‘I rather think you are already aware of any warning I can give,’ said Holmes. ‘This morning I had a telegram from Miss Wortley-Swan, informing me that you had left for Russia. Evidently you left her home before the newspapers carried the story of events in Hyde Park yesterday.’
Gregorieff nodded. ‘I was warned by a friend in the embassy, that the police would be looking for me at
