? ? ? ? "He opened the door as he spoke. and I had hardly time to spring out when the coachman lashed the horse and the carriage rattled away. I looked around 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.
? ? ? ? "The carriage which had brought me was already out of sight. 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 he was a railway porter.
? ? ? ? " 'Can you tell me what place this is?' I asked.
? ? ? ? " 'Wandsworth Common,' said he.
? ? ? ? " 'Can I get a train into town?'
? ? ? ? " 'If you walk on a mile or so to Clapham Junction,' said he, 'you'll just be in time for the last to Victoria.'
? ? ? ? "So that was the end of my adventure, Mr. Holmes. 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.
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