The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Part 26 (1/2)
”No crireat error has been committed,” said Holmes ”You would have done better to have trusted your wife”
”It was not the wife; it was the children,” groaned the prisoner
”God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father My God! What an exposure! What can I do?”
Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him kindly on the shoulder
”If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up,” said he, ”of course you can hardly avoid publicity On the other hand, if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the details should find their way into the papers Inspector Bradstreet would, I aht tell us and subo into court at all”
”God bless you!” cried the prisoner passionately ”I would have endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left my miserable secret as a family blot to my children
”You are the first who have ever heard my story My father was a schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent education I travelled in e, and finally beca paper in London One dayin the metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them There was the point froing as an aet the facts upon which to base my articles When an actor I had, of course, learned all the secrets of reen-rooe now of my attainments I painted ood scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a small slip of flesh-coloured plaster Then with a red head of hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business part of the city, ostensibly as a ar For seven hours I pliedI found to my surprise that I had received no less than 26s 4d
”I wrote ht little more of the matter until, some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ served upon et the race from the creditor, asked for a holiday fro in the City under uise In ten days I had the ine how hard it was to settle down to arduous work at 2 pounds a hen I knew that I could earn asht between my pride and theand sat day after day in the corner which I had first chosen, inspiring pity bymy pockets with coppers Only one man knew my secret He was the keeper of a low den in which I used to lodge in Swandaar and in the evenings transform myself into a well-dressed man about town This fellow, a Lascar, ell paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that my secret was safe in his possession
”Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable suar in the streets of London could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than es inup, and also in a facility of repartee, which inised character in the City
All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds
”As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the country, and eventuallya suspicion as to my real occupation My dear wife knew that I had business in the City She little knehat
”Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my room above the opium den when I looked out of myand saw, toin the street, with her eyes fixed full upon ave a cry of surprise, threw upto my confidant, the Lascar, entreated hi up to me I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that she could not ascend Swiftly I threw offEven a wife's eyes could not pierce so coht be a search in the rooht betrayby my violence a small cut which I had inflicted uponThen I seized hted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it fros I hurled it out of the , and it disappeared into the Thames The other clothes would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, I confess, toidentified as Mr
Neville St Clair, I was arrested as hiselse for uise as long as possible, and hencethatand confided it to the Lascar at a ether with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to fear”
”That note only reached her yesterday,” said Holmes
”Good God! What a week she must have spent!”
”The police have watched this Lascar,” said Inspector Bradstreet, ”and I can quite understand that he ht find it difficult to post a letter unobserved Probably he handed it to soot all about it for soly; ”I have no doubt of it But have you never been prosecuted for begging?”
”Many times; but as a fine to me?”
”It must stop here, however,” said Bradstreet ”If the police are to hush this thing up, there h Boone”
”I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take”
”In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps ain, then all must come out
I am sure, Mr Hol cleared the matter up I wish I kne you reach your results”