Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Greek Interpreter (Annotated)

Melas, and he will write the answers. Ask him first of all whether he is prepared to sign the papers. Again and again I had to ask him whether he would give in and sign the document. Again and again I had the same indignant reply. But soon a happy thought came to me. I took to adding on little sentences of my own to each question-innocent ones at first, to test whether either of our companions knew anything of the matter, and then, as I found that they showed no sign, I played a more dangerous game. Our conversation ran something like this:. Holmes, and I should have wormed out the whole story under their very noses.

My very next question might have cleared the matter up, but at that instant the door opened and a woman stepped into the room. I could not see her clearly enough to know more than that she was tall and graceful, with black hair, and clad in some sort of loose white gown. It is so lonely up there with only - oh, my God, it is Paul! Their embrace was but for an instant, however, for the younger man seized the woman and pushed her out of the room, while the elder easily overpowered his emaciated victim, and dragged him away through the other door.

For a moment I was left alone in the room, and I sprang to my feet with some vague idea that I might in some way get a clue to what this house was in which I found myself. Fortunately, however, I took no steps, for, looking up, I saw that the older man was standing in the doorway, with his eyes fixed upon me. We should not have troubled you only that our friend who speaks Greek and who began these negotiations has been forced to return to the East.

It was quite necessary for us to find someone to take his place, and we were fortunate in hearing of your powers. But remember," he added, tapping me lightly on the chest and giggling, "if you speak to a human soul about this - one human soul, mind - well, may God have mercy upon your soul!

• Amritsar Massacre, The: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day.
• London A to Zed.
• Publication of the Adventure of the Greek Interpeter?
• La Demi-pensionnaire (French Edition)?
• The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter - Wikipedia?

I could see him better now as the lamp-light shone upon him. His features were peeky and sallow, and his little, pointed beard was thready and ill-nourished. He pushed his face forward as he spoke, and his lips and eyelids were continually twitching, like a man with St. I could not help thinking that his strange, catchy little laugh was also a symptom of some nervous malady. The terror of his face lay in his eyes, however, steel grey, and glistening coldly, with a malignant, inexorable cruelty in their depths.

Now, you will find the carriage waiting, and my friend will see you on your way. Latimer followed closely at my heels, and took his place opposite to me without a word. In silence we again drove for an interminable distance, with the windows raised, until at last, just after midnight, the carriage pulled up. Melas," said my companion. Any attempt upon your part to follow the carriage can only end in injury to yourself.

I looked round me in astonishment. I was on some sort of a heathy common, mottled over with dark clumps of furze bushes. Far away stretched a line of houses, with a light here and there in the upper windows. On the other side I saw the red signal lamps of a railway. I stood gazing round and wondering where on earth I might be, when I saw someone coming towards me in the darkness.

As he came up to me I made out that it was a railway porter. I do not know where I was nor whom I spoke with, nor anything, save what I have told you. But I know that there is foul play going on, and I want to help that unhappy man if I can. I told the whole story to Mr. Mycroft Holmes next morning, and, subsequently, to the police. We all sat in silence for some little time after listening to this extraordinary narrative.

Then Sherlock looked across at his brother. A similar reward paid to anyone giving information about a Greek lady whose first name is Sophy. In the meantime, Mr. Melas, I should certainly be on my guard if I were you, for, of course, they must know through these advertisements that you have betrayed them.

Some of my most interesting cases have come to me in this way through Mycroft. The problem which we have just listened to, although it can admit of but one explanation, has still some distinguishing features. You must yourself have formed some theory which will explain the facts to which we have listened.

Sherlock Holmes shook his head. The lady could talk English fairly well.

Inference, that she had been in England some little time, but he had not been in Greece. He imprudently puts himself into the power of the young man and his older associate. They seize him and use violence towards him in order to make him sign some papers to make over the girl's fortune - of which he may be trustee - to them. This he refuses to do. In order to negotiate with him, they have to get an interpreter, and they pitch upon this Mr. Melas, having used some other one before.

The girl is not told of the arrival of her brother, and finds it out by the merest accident. You see that we hold all the cards, and we have only to fear some sudden act of violence on their part. If they give us time we must have them. That must be our main hope, for the brother, of course, is a complete stranger. It is clear that some time has elapsed since this Harold established these relations with the girl - some weeks at any rate - since the brother in Greece has had time to hear of it, and come across.

If they have been living in the same place during this time, it is probable that we shall have some answer to Mycroft's advertisement. We had reached our house in Baker Street whilst we had been talking, Holmes ascended the stairs first, and as he opened the door of our room he gave a start of surprise.

Looking over his shoulder I was equally astonished. His brother Mycroft was sitting smoking in the arm-chair. Come in, sir,' said he, blandly, smiling at our surprised faces. But somehow this case attracts me. If you should care to call upon me, I could give you some particulars as to her painful history. She is living at present at The Myrtles, Beckenham. We know that a man is being done to death, and every hour may be vital.

It was almost dark before we found ourselves in Pall Mall, at the rooms of Mr. A gentleman had just called for him, and he was gone. He is a man of no physical courage, as they are well aware from their experience the other night. This villain was able to terrorize him the instant that he got into his presence. No doubt they want his professional services; but, having used him, they may be inclined to punish him for what they will regard as his treachery.

Our hope was that by taking train we might get to Beckenham as soon as, or sooner than, the carriage. On reaching Scotland Yard, however, it was more than an hour before we could get Inspector Gregson and comply with the legal formalities which would enable us to enter the house. It was a quarter to ten before we reached London Bridge, and half-past before the four of us alighted on the Beckenham platform. A drive of half a mile brought us to The Myrtles - a large, dark house, standing back from the road in its own grounds. Here we dismissed our cab, and made our way up the drive together.

But the outward-bound ones were very much deeper - so much so that we can say for a certainty that there was a very considerable weight on the carriage. But we will try if we cannot make someone hear us. He imprudently puts himself into the power of the young man and his older associate. This he refuses to do. In order to negotiate with him they have to get an interpreter, and they pitch upon this Mr.

Melas, having used some other one before.

Plot Summary of the Adventure of the Greek Interpreter | Owlcation

The girl is not told of the arrival of her brother, and finds it out by the merest accident. You see that we hold all the cards, and we have only to fear some sudden act of violence on their part. If they give us time we must have them. That must be our main hope, for the brother is, of course, a complete stranger. It is clear that some time has elapsed since this Harold established these relations with the girl—some weeks, at any rate—since the brother in Greece has had time to hear of it and come across. We had reached our house in Baker Street while we had been talking.

Holmes ascended the stair first, and as he opened the door of our room he gave a start of surprise. Looking over his shoulder, I was equally astonished. His brother Mycroft was sitting smoking in the arm-chair. But somehow this case attracts me. If you should care to call upon me I could give you some particulars as to her painful history.

She is living at present at The Myrtles, Beckenham. We know that a man is being done to death, and every hour may be vital. It was almost dark before we found ourselves in Pall Mall, at the rooms of Mr. A gentleman had just called for him, and he was gone. He was a little gentleman, with glasses, thin in the face, but very pleasant in his ways, for he was laughing all the time that he was talking. He is a man of no physical courage, as they are well aware from their experience the other night. This villain was able to terrorize him the instant that he got into his presence.

No doubt they want his professional services, but, having used him, they may be inclined to punish him for what they will regard as his treachery. Our hope was that, by taking train, we might get to Beckenham as soon or sooner than the carriage. On reaching Scotland Yard, however, it was more than an hour before we could get Inspector Gregson and comply with the legal formalities which would enable us to enter the house. It was a quarter to ten before we reached London Bridge, and half past before the four of us alighted on the Beckenham platform. A drive of half a mile brought us to The Myrtles—a large, dark house standing back from the road in its own grounds.

Here we dismissed our cab, and made our way up the drive together. But the outward-bound ones were very much deeper—so much so that we can say for a certainty that there was a very considerable weight on the carriage. He hammered loudly at the knocker and pulled at the bell, but without any success. Holmes had slipped away, but he came back in a few minutes. One after the other we made our way into a large apartment, which was evidently that in which Mr.

Melas had found himself. The inspector had lit his lantern, and by its light we could see the two doors, the curtain, the lamp, and the suit of Japanese mail as he had described them.

The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter

On the table lay two glasses, an empty brandy-bottle, and the remains of a meal. We all stood still and listened. A low moaning sound was coming from somewhere over our heads. Holmes rushed to the door and out into the hall. The dismal noise came from upstairs.

• Short Stories: The Greek Interpreter by Arthur Conan Doyle.
• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Annotated).
• The Lady, or the Tiger?.
• A View From the Threshold-True ghost stories and other spirit encounters Volume 2!
• The Dream House?
• Erotica : Secrets and Confessions from the Girl Next Door.

He dashed up, the inspector and I at his heels, while his brother Mycroft followed as quickly as his great bulk would permit. Three doors faced up upon the second floor, and it was from the central of these that the sinister sounds were issuing, sinking sometimes into a dull mumble and rising again into a shrill whine. It was locked, but the key had been left on the outside. Holmes flung open the door and rushed in, but he was out again in an instant, with his hand to his throat.

Peering in, we could see that the only light in the room came from a dull blue flame which flickered from a small brass tripod in the centre. It threw a livid, unnatural circle upon the floor, while in the shadows beyond we saw the vague loom of two figures which crouched against the wall. From the open door there reeked a horrible poisonous exhalation which set us gasping and coughing. Holmes rushed to the top of the stairs to draw in the fresh air, and then, dashing into the room, he threw up the window and hurled the brazen tripod out into the garden.

I doubt if we could strike a match in that atmosphere. Hold the light at the door and we shall get them out, Mycroft, now! With a rush we got to the poisoned men and dragged them out into the well-lit hall.

Both of them were blue-lipped and insensible, with swollen, congested faces and protruding eyes. Indeed, so distorted were their features that, save for his black beard and stout figure, we might have failed to recognize in one of them the Greek interpreter who had parted from us only a few hours before at the Diogenes Club.

His hands and feet were securely strapped together, and he bore over one eye the marks of a violent blow. The other, who was secured in a similar fashion, was a tall man in the last stage of emaciation, with several strips of sticking-plaster arranged in a grotesque pattern over his face. He had ceased to moan as we laid him down, and a glance showed me that for him at least our aid had come too late.

Melas, however, still lived, and in less than an hour, with the aid of ammonia and brandy I had the satisfaction of seeing him open his eyes, and of knowing that my hand had drawn him back from that dark valley in which all paths meet. It was a simple story which he had to tell, and one which did but confirm our own deductions. His visitor, on entering his rooms, had drawn a life-preserver from his sleeve, and had so impressed him with the fear of instant and inevitable death that he had kidnapped him for the second time. Indeed, it was almost mesmeric, the effect which this giggling ruffian had produced upon the unfortunate linguist, for he could not speak of him save with trembling hands and a blanched cheek.

He had been taken swiftly to Beckenham, and had acted as interpreter in a second interview, even more dramatic than the first, in which the two Englishmen had menaced their prisoner with instant death if he did not comply with their demands. Finally, finding him proof against every threat, they had hurled him back into his prison, and after reproaching Melas with his treachery, which appeared from the newspaper advertisement, they had stunned him with a blow from a stick, and he remembered nothing more until he found us bending over him.

And this was the singular case of the Grecian Interpreter, the explanation of which is still involved in some mystery. We were able to find out, by communicating with the gentleman who had answered the advertisement, that the unfortunate young lady came of a wealthy Grecian family, and that she had been on a visit to some friends in England. While there she had met a young man named Harold Latimer, who had acquired an ascendancy over her and had eventually persuaded her to fly with him.

Her friends, shocked at the event, had contented themselves with informing her brother at Athens, and had then washed their hands of the matter.

Navigation menu

The brother, on his arrival in England, had imprudently placed himself in the power of Latimer and of his associate, whose name was Wilson Kemp—a man of the foulest antecedents. The poor girl, however, was herself a prisoner, for there was no one about the house except the man who acted as coachman, and his wife, both of whom were tools of the conspirators. Months afterwards a curious newspaper cutting reached us from Buda-Pest. It told how two Englishmen who had been traveling with a woman had met with a tragic end. They had each been stabbed, it seems, and the Hungarian police were of opinion that they had quarreled and had inflicted mortal injuries upon each other.

Holmes, however, is, I fancy, of a different way of thinking, and holds to this day that, if one could find the Grecian girl, one might learn how the wrongs of herself and her brother came to be avenged.

Plot Summary of the Adventure of the Greek Interpreter

Authors Books Genres Collections Readability. Additional Information Year Published: English Country of Origin: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. The embedded audio player requires a modern internet browser. If Apple Books doesn't open, click the Books app in your Dock.

Do you already have iTunes? Click I Have iTunes to open it now. View More by This Author. Other Books in This Series. A Scandal in Bohemia - Annotated Version