The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Part 49 (1/2)
”You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for them?”
”I would pay ten”
”That would be unnecessary Three thousand will cover the matter
And there is a little reward, I fancy Have you your check-book?
Here is a pen Better make it out for 4000 pounds”
With a dazed face the banker made out the required check Holular piece of gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table
With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up
”You have it!” he gasped ”I am saved! I am saved!”
The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and he hugged his recovered ge you owe, Mr Holder,” said Sherlock Holht up a pen ”Name the sum, and I will pay it”
”No, the debt is not to y to that noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to have one”
”Then it was not Arthur who took them?”
”I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not”
”You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him know that the truth is known”
”He knows it already When I had cleared it all up I had an intervieith hi that he would not tell me the story, I told it to hiht and to add the very few details which were not yet quite clear to , however, may open his lips”
”For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary mystery!”
”I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached it And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest forbetween Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary They have now fled together”
”My Mary? Impossible!”
”It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain Neither you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you aderous ambler, an absolutely desperate villain, aof such men When he breathed his vows to her, as he had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she alone had touched his heart The devil knows best what he said, but at least she beca hi”
”I cannot, and I will not, believe it!” cried the banker with an ashen face
”I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night
Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your rooh the hich leads into the stable lane His foot had he stood there She told hiold kindled at the news, and he bent her to his will I have no doubt that she loved you, but there are wouishes all other loves, and I think that she must have been one She had hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you co downstairs, on which she closed therapidly and told you about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, which was all perfectly true
”Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his intervieith you but he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts
In the ht he heard a soft tread pass his door, so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared into your dressing-room Petrified with astonishment, the lad slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see ould coed froe-lamp your son saw that she carried the precious coronet in her hands She passed down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see what passed in the hall beneath He saw her stealthily open the , hand out the coronet to so it oncequite close to where he stood hid behind the curtain
”As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action without a horrible exposure of the woone he realised how crushi+ng a misfortune this would be for you, and how all-iht He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened the , sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, where he could see a dark figure in the et away, but Arthur caught hi at one side of the coronet, and his opponent at the other In the scuffle, your son struck Sir George and cut hi suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet in his hands, rushed back, closed the , ascended to your room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you appeared upon the scene”