The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Part 2 (1/2)

”That's not my horse,” cried the owner ”That beast has not a white hair upon its body What is this that you have done, Mr Holets on,” said h lass ”Capital! An excellent start!” he cried suddenly ”There they are, co we had a superb view as they caether that a carpet could have covered them, but half way up the yellow of the Mapleton stable showed to the front Before they reached us, however, Desborough's bolt was shot, and the Colonel's horse, coths before its rival, the Duke of Bal a bad third

”It'shis hand over his eyes ”I confess that I can make neither head nor tail of it Don't you think that you have kept up your h, Mr Hol Let us all go round and have a look at the horse together Here he is,” he continued, as weenclosure, where only owners and their friends find ad in spirits of wine, and you will find that he is the same old Silver Blaze as ever”

”You take my breath away!”

”I found hi him just as he was sent over”

”My dear sir, you have done wonders The horse looks very fit and well It never went better in its life I owe you a thousand apologies for having doubted your ability You have done reater still if you could lay your hands on the murderer of John Straker”

”I have done so,” said Holmes quietly

The Colonel and I stared at hiot him! Where is he, then?”

”He is here”

”Here! Where?”

”In my corily ”I quite recognize that I aations to you, Mr Holard what you have just said as either a very bad joke or an insult”

Sherlock Holhed ”I assure you that I have not associated you with the cri immediately behind you” He stepped past and laid his hand upon the glossy neck of the thoroughbred

”The horse!” cried both the Colonel and uilt if I say that it was done in self-defence, and that John Straker was a oes the bell, and as I stand to win a little on this next race, I shall defer a lengthy explanation until atime”

We had the corner of a Pull as hirled back to London, and I fancy that the journey was a short one to Colonel Ross as well as to myself, as we listened to our companion's narrative of the events which had occurred at the Dartht, and the means by which he had unravelled them

”I confess,” said he, ”that any theories which I had formed from the newspaper reports were entirely erroneous And yet there were indications there, had they not been overlaid by other details which concealed their true import I went to Devonshi+re with the conviction that Fitzroy Sih, of course, I saw that the evidence against hie, just as we reached the trainer's house, that the inificance of the curried mutton occurred toafter you had all alighted I wasin my own mind how I could possibly have overlooked so obvious a clue”

”I confess,” said the Colonel, ”that even now I cannot see how it helps us”

”It was the first link inPowdered opiureeable, but it is perceptible Were it mixed with any ordinary dish the eater would undoubtedly detect it, and would probably eat no uise this taste By no possible supposition could this stranger, Fitzroy Simpson, have caused curry to be served in the trainer's faht, and it is surely too monstrous a coincidence to suppose that he happened to coht when a dish happened to be served which would disguise the flavor That is unthinkable Therefore Simpson becomes eliminated from the case, and our attention centers upon Straker and his wife, the only two people who could have chosen curried ht The opium was added after the dish was set aside for the stable-boy, for the others had the same for supper with no ill effects Which of the thenificance of the silence of the dog, for one true inference invariably suggests others The Si was kept in the stables, and yet, though some one had been in and had fetched out a horse, he had not barked enough to arouse the two lads in the loft Obviously thekneell

”I was already convinced, or almost convinced, that John Straker went down to the stables in the dead of the night and took out Silver Blaze For what purpose? For a dishonest one, obviously, or why should he drug his own stable-boy? And yet I was at a loss to knohy There have been cases before nohere trainers have ainst their own horses, through agents, and then preventing the jockey Sometimes it is some surer and subtler means What was it here? I hoped that the contents of his pockets ht help me to forotten the singular knife which was found in the dead man's hand, a knife which certainly no sane man would choose for a weapon It was, as Dr Watson told us, a form of knife which is used for the ery And it was to be used for a delicate operation that night You must knoith your wide experience of turf ht nick upon the tendons of a horse's ham, and to do it subcutaneously, so as to leave absolutely no trace A horse so treated would develop a slight lameness, which would be put down to a strain in exercise or a touch of rheumatism, but never to foul play”

”Villain! Scoundrel!” cried the Colonel

”We have here the explanation of why John Straker wished to take the horse out on to the moor So spirited a creature would have certainly roused the soundest of sleepers when it felt the prick of the knife It was absolutely necessary to do it in the open air”

”I have been blind!” cried the Colonel ”Of course that hy he needed the candle, and struck the s I was fortunate enough to discover not only the method of the crime, but even its motives As a man of the world, Colonel, you know that men do not carry other people's bills about in their pockets We have h to do to settle our own I at once concluded that Straker was leading a double life, and keeping a second establishment The nature of the bill showed that there was a lady in the case, and one who had expensive tastes Liberal as you are with your servants, one can hardly expect that they can buy twenty-guinea walking dresses for their ladies I questioned Mrs Straker as to the dress without her knowing it, and having satisfied myself that it had never reached her, I made a note of thethere with Straker's photograph I could easily dispose of the mythical Derbyshi+re

”From that time on all was plain Straker had led out the horse to a hollohere his light would be invisible Siht had dropped his cravat, and Straker had picked it up--with so the horse's leg Once in the hollow, he had got behind the horse and had struck a light; but the creature frightened at the sudden glare, and with the strange instinct of ani that some mischief was intended, had lashed out, and the steel shoe had struck Straker full on the forehead He had already, in spite of the rain, taken off his overcoat in order to do his delicate task, and so, as he fell, his knife gashed his thigh Do I make it clear?”

”Wonderful!” cried the Colonel ”Wonderful! You ht have been there!”

”My final shot was, I confess a very long one It struck me that so astute a man as Straker would not undertake this delicate tendon-nicking without a little practice What could he practice on? My eyes fell upon the sheep, and I asked a question which, rather to my surprise, showed that my surmise was correct

”When I returned to London I called upon the nized Straker as an excellent custo wife, with a strong partiality for expensive dresses I have no doubt that this woed him over head and ears in debt, and so led him into this ,” cried the Colonel ”Where was the horse?”

”Ah, it bolted, and was cared for by one of your neighbors We must have an amnesty in that direction, I think This is Clapham Junction, if I am not mistaken, and we shall be in Victoria in less than ten ar in our rooive you any other details which ht interest you”

Adventure II

The Yellow Face

[In publishi+ng these short sketches based upon the nuifts have made us the listeners to, and eventually the actors in, soe drama, it is only natural that I should dwell rather upon his successes than upon his failures And this not so much for the sake of his reputation--for, indeed, it hen he was at his wits' end that his energy and his versatility were most admirable--but because where he failed it happened too often that no one else succeeded, and that the tale was left forever without a conclusion Now and again, however, it chanced that even when he erred, the truth was still discovered I have noted of sorave Ritual and that which I aest features of interest]

Sherlock Holmes was a man who seldoreater muscular effort, and he was undoubtedly one of the finest boxers of his weight that I have ever seen; but he looked upon aiy, and he seldom bestirred himself save when there was some professional object to be served Then he was absolutely untiring and indefatigable That he should have kept hi under such circumstances is remarkable, but his diet was usually of the sparest, and his habits were sie of austerity Save for the occasional use of cocaine, he had no vices, and he only turned to the drug as a protest against the monotony of existence when cases were scanty and the papers uninteresting

One day in early spring he had so far relaxed as to go for a ith reen were breaking out upon the elinning to burst into their five-fold leaves For two hours we raether, in silence for the most part, as befits two men who know each other intimately It was nearly five before ere back in Baker Street once e-boy, as he opened the door ”There's been a gentlelanced reproachfully at entleone, then?”

”Yes, sir”

”Didn't you ask hi did he wait?”

”Half an hour, sir He was a very restless gentleman, sir, a-walkin' and a-stampin' all the time he was here I aitin' outside the door, sir, and I could hear hie, and he cries, 'Is that oin' to come?' Those were his very words, sir 'You'll only need to wait a little longer,' says I 'Then I'll wait in the open air, for I feel half choked,' says he 'I'll be back before long' And with that he ups and he outs, and all I could say wouldn't hold him back”

”Well, well, you did your best,” said Holh, Watson I was badly in need of a case, and this looks, from the man's impatience, as if it were of importance Hullo! That's not your pipe on the table He ood long stem of what the tobacconists call amber I wonder how many real amber mouthpieces there are in London? Son Well, he must have been disturbed in his hly”

”How do you know that he values it highly?” I asked

”Well, I should put the original cost of the pipe at seven and sixpence Now it has, you see, been twice mended, once in the wooden stem and once in the amber Each of these mends, done, as you observe, with silver bands, inally The hly when he prefers to patch it up rather than buy a new one with the sa else?” I asked, for Hol at it in his peculiar pensive way

He held it up and tapped on it with his long, thin fore-finger, as a professoron a bone

”Pipes are occasionally of extraordinary interest,” said he ”Nothing has more individuality, save perhaps watches and bootlaces The indications here, however, are neither very marked nor very important The owner is obviously a muscular man, left-handed, with an excellent set of teeth, careless in his habits, and with no need to practise economy”