As the hansom was rumbling towards Soho Square, its rattling movements curiously conducive to contemplation, I could no longer refrain from expressing my thoughts to my travelling companion.

"Holmes" I said tentatively, "something here is simply not adding up."

Holmes looked at me expectantly. The expression on his face was not unlike that of a not too hopeful teacher whose pupil is just about to try to solve a difficult arithmetical problem.

"Well," I ploughed ahead, trying not to loose confidence under his shrewd gaze "you told me just a few minutes ago that the coachman Oldman forced the young lady of the house to wrap the package, and that by means of the knotted string the lady herself sent you a clue that Oldman could not decipher."

Holmes made a sound that I chose to interpret as encouragement to go on.

"But if that is the case", I added, beginning to feel rather triumphant, "why on earth did Oldman twist poor Benjamin's leg so hard that he almost wrenched it from its socket? If he did not know about the cipher, why did he get so furiously angry when the lad reported back to him with the fallen string after he had delivered the box containing the diamond?"

"A pertinent observation, dear Watson", Holmes' voice intoned from a corner of the hansom cab, sounding definitely pleased. "A very pertinent observation! And what, pray, do you deduce from that?"

More than ever did I feel like a student being examined.

"Well, there are two possibilities that I can see: Either Oldman sent us the coded message himself or it was sent with his knowledge or even on his orders."

"Strictly speaking, Watson, these are three possibilites...and I am inclined to think that none of them is what really happened."

I shot him a withering glance and he had the decency to arrange his features into a rueful expression, before he continued.

"Think Watson, if Oldman sent the message himself, why this silk used by fine ladies for crotcheting? Why imitate knots being tied by a left-handed person while he himself - as you have doubtless observed yourself - is right-handed?"

"Indeed, this seems like an unnecessary action to me." I exclaimed in exasperation. "This is just too confusing!"

"I absolutely agree with you Watson. There are indeed many curious incidents in this case. For example, consider the nickname "Ratface" that this boy in buttons so obligingly told you.

Now, as you yourself observed, there is nothing whatsoever ratlike about the appearance of Benjamin's face. You even called him - in your usual rather sentimental manner - a dark-haired cherub."

I opened my mouth to protest very unsentimentally, but Holmes quickly proceeded.

"And then take the message that the piece of string conveyed:

'I am in a jam amen jambi'.

That's gibberish! Even if we assume that the most important part of the message is missing, the use of the word amen seems quite arbitrary to me. The message would lose nothing if it had not been included in it and its author would have saved a lot of knotting time. It almost appears as if the person tying the knots was simply arranging some words so that they would make at least a semblance of sense. I daresay the only telling thing in this message is name of the Jambi province in Sumatra.

And there we are: a message about Sumatra delivered by a 'ratfaced' young rascal. Isn't this almost too good to resist? Do I smell a giant rat here, Watson?"

"Sundamys infraluteus" I mumbled under my breath.

"And to crown it all, Rachel very conveniently remembers her master's visit to his company’s office in Holland and the word "Lombok", that Oldham presumably said when he went in to see the master for the first time after the trip abroad.

Of course Oldham could be a very stupid and very careless individual. But I wonder, Watson, why a man who is running such a high risk to his freedom and maybe even life by blackmailing a family like the Haversmiths would be so free in his dispensation of data as to tell the whole staff that he had learnt something about Lombok that would give his master trouble?"

"Why indeed, Holmes. It would certainly endanger his plans - or the plans of his real master, whoever he might be! As my late wife would doubtless assure you, not even a brute like Oldman could keep the servants from talking. He could not supervise all of them around the clock. Something would be bound to leak to the outside world!"

"Quite so, Watson."

"But what do you make of it all, Holmes? Has all of London gone mad or is it just that we...?"

"I am afraid it is the latter, Watson. We have deliberately - and not entirely without skill - been fed information with the express purpose to guide our investigation into a certain direction.

Tea trade, Holland, Sumatra, Lombok, and a rat to boot. What, dear Doctor, does all of this indicate to you?"

"Well, it is known that the tea company that Haversmith has invested in is not limited to Britain but has also Dutch partners. That is why Lord Haversmith went to Holland in April. Although I have to confess that I am amazed that he went there himself and did not send a manager to do so. It is not exactly the thing to do for an aristocrat like Haversmith to openly dabble in trade, however profitable it might be.

As for Jambi, the climate and soil of the areas among the mountains of Jambi province produce some of the finest tea in the world. I assume that Haversmith, having made his money from the tea industry, will be somehow connected to this region.

And then... Lombok! Good Lord, Holmes! Do you think that Haversmith might have been involved in the events around the 'The treason of Lombok' in 1894?"

I shuddered as I thought of the events that had taken place a few years earlier on Lombok, an island to the east of Bali, named for its well-known chili pepper.

The Dutch had arrived in and colonized the eastern part of Lombok in the 17th century leaving the western part of the island to the Balinese. They were the Lombok "elite" who ruled over the indigenous Sasak, the Balinese Radja of Lombok being loanlord of the monarchs on Bali.

When the Sasak people on Lombok rebelled against the cruel reigning Balinese monarch Anak Agoeng Madé, a few of their leaders called in the Dutch to come to their aid. So in March 1894 a Dutch expedition army landed on the coast of Lombok. However, Anak Agoeng Madé committed suicide and all of a sudden the direct motive for a Dutch intervention had disappeared.

Since the expedition had incurred huge costs, the Balinese monarchs were afraid that the Dutch might take their presence on Lombok as an occassion to finally 'pacify' Lombok completely. And so, in order to forestall them, one night the Dutch troops were attacked. Almost a hundred people were killed and more than 250 wounded.

The Dutch answered this 'treason of Lombok' with harsh violence and the help of new troops. Ruthlessly they finally "pacified" and took over the entire island - under tragic circumstances that resulted in a horrible loss of life, a razing of whole landscapes to the ground and relentless looting.

Could it really be possible that somehow Lord Haversmith or his company had had a hand in this tragedy?

"Watson, your mind is indeed inestimable. You have a wonderful talent for grasping the obvious. Yes, I believe that this is precisely what we are meant to think. This is the avenue we are supposed to investigate.

But as good as all the single clues in this case may be when examined separately, when taken together, they are rather less than the sum of their parts.

They are all cleverly designed, but they bear the handwriting of at least two different shrewd minds. One seems to be tugging us into one direction, while the other is pulling us into the opposite one."

"And this means...?" I said enquiringly, Holmes' hints and allusions tugging at my nerves.

"This means, dear Watson, that I have behaved like the greatest fool in Christendom. This means, that part of this has been a brilliant - although not quite flawless - diversionary tactic. And I allowed myself to be diverted by it."

At this dramatic revelation our cab stopped at the red brick building of the Hospital for Women.

"The real key to the whole mystery lies here, Watson. Here at Soho Square, where they treat those maladies which neither rank, wealth, nor character can avert from the female sex."

Proceed to Part Ten