The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 19 (1/2)

Again the professor burst into high-keyed laughter He had risen to his feet, and his eyes glowed like e insanely I helped her to escape? Where is she now?”

”She is there,” said Holh bookcase in the corner of the room

I saw the old man throw up his arrim face, and he fell back in his chair At the sa round upon a hinge, and a woht!” she cried, in a strange foreign voice ”You are right! I am here”

She was broith the dust and draped with the cobhich had co-place Her face, too, was streaked with grime, and at the best she could never have been handsome, for she had the exact physical characteristics which Hol and obstinate chin What with her natural blindness, and ith the change fro about her to see where and ere And yet, in spite of all these disadvantages, there was a certain nobility in the woallantry in the defiant chin and in the upraised head, which co of respect and admiration

Stanley Hopkins had laid his hand upon her arently, and yet with an over-nity which compelled obedience The oldface, and stared at her with brooding eyes

”Yes, sir, I am your prisoner,” she said ”Fro, and I know that you have learned the truth I confess it all It was I who killed the young ht--you who say it was an accident I did not even know that it was a knife which I held infroo It is the truth that I tell”

”Madam,” said Holmes, ”I am sure that it is the truth I fear that you are far frohastly under the dark dust-streaks upon her face She seated herself on the side of the bed; then she resumed

”I have only a little time here,” she said, ”but I would have you to know the whole truth I alishman He is a Russian His name I will not tell”

For the first time the old man stirred ”God bless you, Anna!” he cried ”God bless you!”

She cast a look of the deepest disdain in his direction ”Why should you cling so hard to that wretched life of yours, Sergius?” said she ”It has done harood to none--not even to yourself However, it is not for me to cause the frail thread to be snapped before God's tih already upon my soul since I crossed the threshold of this cursed house But I entleirl of twenty e married It was in a city of Russia, a university--I will not name the place”

”God bless you, Anna!” ain

”We were reformers--revolutionists--Nihilists, you understand He and I and many more Then there came a time of trouble, a police officer was killed, many were arrested, evidence anted, and in order to save his own life and to earn a great reward, my husband betrayed his oife and his companions Yes, ere all arrested upon his confession Soallows, and so these last, but land with his ill-gotten gains and has lived in quiet ever since, knoell that if the Brotherhood knehere he was not a ould pass before justice would be done”

The old arette ”I aood to ht of his villainy,” said she ”A our comrades of the Order, there was one as the friend of --all that uilty--if that is guilt--but he was not He wrote forever dissuading us from such a course These letters would have saved him So would my diary, in which, fros towards him and the viehich each of us had taken My husband found and kept both diary and letters He hid the man's life In this he failed, but Alexis was sent a convict to Siberia, where now, at this moment, he works in a salt mine Think of that, you villain, you villain!--no, at this very moment, Alexis, a man whose name you are not worthy to speak, works and lives like a slave, and yet I have your life in o”

”You were always a noble woarette

She had risen, but she fell back again with a little cry of pain

”I must finish,” she said ”When et the diary and letters which, if sent to the Russian government, would procure land AfterI discovered where he was I knew that he still had the diary, for when I was in Siberia I had a letter froes froeful nature, he would never give it to et it for ent from a private detective firm, who entered my husband's house as a secretary--it was your second secretary, Sergius, the one who left you so hurriedly He found that papers were kept in the cupboard, and he got an io farther He furnished me with a plan of the house, and he told me that in the forenoon the study was always empty, as the secretary was ee in both hands, and I caet the papers for myself I succeeded; but at what a cost!

”I had just taken the paper; and was locking the cupboard, when the youngHe had met me on the road, and I had asked hi that he was in his employ”

”Exactly! Exactly!” said Holmes ”The secretary came back, and told his employer of the woman he had e that it was she--the she whom he had just discussed with him”

”You must let me speak,” said the woman, in an imperative voice, and her face contracted as if in pain ”When he had fallen I rushed fro door, and foundme up I showed hiave ive him to the Brotherhood It was not that I wished to live for my own sake, but it was that I desired to accomplish my purpose He knew that I would do what I said--that his own fate was involved in mine For that reason, and for no other, he shi+elded -place--a relic of old days, known only to hiive reed that when the police left the house I should slip away by night and come back no more But in some way you have read our plans” She tore from the bosom of her dress a small packet ”These are my last words,” said she; ”here is the packet which will save Alexis I confide it to your honour and to your love of justice Take it! You will deliver it at the Russian Embassy Now, I have done my duty, and----”

”Stop her!” cried Holmes He had bounded across the room and had wrenched a s back on the bed ”Too late! I took the poison before I left e you, sir, to remember the packet”

”A simple case, and yet, in some ways, an instructive one,” Holed from the outset upon the pince-nez But for the fortunate chance of the dyingseized these, I am not sure that we could ever have reached our solution It was clear to lasses, that the wearer must have been very blind and helpless when deprived of the a narrow strip of grass without oncea false step, I remarked, as you may remember, that it was a noteworthy performance In my mind I set it down as an impossible performance, save in the unlikely case that she had a second pair of glasses I was forced, therefore, to consider seriously the hypothesis that she had re the siht very easily have made such a mistake, and, in that case, it was evident that she must have entered the professor's room I was keenly on the alert, therefore, for whatever would bear out this supposition, and I exa-place The carpet seemed continuous and firht well be a recess behind the books As you are aware, such devices are common in old libraries I observed that books were piled on the floor at all other points, but that one bookcase was left clear This, then, uide me, but the carpet was of a dun colour, which lends itself very well to exareat nuarettes, and I dropped the ash all over the space in front of the suspected bookcase It was a sily effective I then went downstairs, and I ascertained, in your presence, Watson, without your perceiving the drift of my remarks, that Professor Coram's consumption of food had increased--as one would expect when he is supplying a second person We then ascended to the rooarette-box, I obtained a very excellent view of the floor, and was able to see quite clearly, froarette ash, that the prisoner had in our absence co Cross, and I congratulate you on having brought your case to a successful conclusion You are going to headquarters, no doubt I think, Watson, you and I will drive together to the Russian Embassy”

THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING THREE-QUARTER

We were fairly accustorams at Baker Street, but I have a particular recollection of one which reached us on a glooave Mr Sherlock Holmes a puzzled quarter of an hour It was addressed to hiht wing three-quarter , indispensable to-morrow OVERTON

”Strand post it over and over ”Mr Overton was evidently considerably excited when he sent it, and somewhat incoherent in consequence Well, well, he will be here, I daresay, by the tih the TIMES, and then we shall know all about it Even the nant days”

Things had indeed been very sloith us, and I had learned to dread such periods of inaction, for I knew by experience that erous to leave it without radually weaned hi mania which had threatened once to check his remarkable career Now I knew that under ordinary conditions he no longer craved for this artificial stimulus, but I ell aware that the fiend was not dead but sleeping, and I have known that the sleep was a light one and the waking near when in periods of idleness I have seen the drawn look upon Hol of his deep-set and inscrutable eyes Therefore I blessed this Mr Overton whoever he e to break that dangerous calht more peril to my friend than all the storms of his teram was soon followed by its sender, and the card of Mr Cyril Overton, Trinity College, Ca man, sixteen stone of solid bone and muscle, who spanned the doorith his broad shoulders, and looked froard with anxiety

”Mr Sherlock Holmes?”

My companion bowed

”I've been down to Scotland Yard, Mr Holmes I saw Inspector Stanley Hopkins He advised me to come to you He said the case, so far as he could see, was ular police”

”Pray sit down and tell me what is the matter”

”It's awful, Mr Holray Godfrey Staunton--you've heard of hie that the whole team turns on I'd rather spare two from the pack, and have Godfrey for , or dribbling, there's no one to touch hiether What am I to do? That's what I ask you, Mr Holmes There's Moorhouse, first reserve, but he is trained as a half, and he always edges right in on to the scru out on the touchline He's a fine place-kick, it's true, but then he has no judgment, and he can't sprint for nuts Why, Morton or Johnson, the Oxford fliers, could roh, but he couldn't drop from the twenty-five line, and a three-quarter who can't either punt or drop isn't worth a place for pace alone No, Mr Holmes, we are done unless you can help me to find Godfrey Staunton”

My friend had listened with a speech, which was poured forth with extraordinary vigour and earnestness, every point being driven ho of a brawny hand upon the speaker's knee When our visitor was silent Holmes stretched out his hand and took down letter ”S” of his co in vain into that mine of varied infor forger,” said he, ”and there was Henry Staunton, who, but Godfrey Staunton is a new name to me”

It was our visitor's turn to look surprised

”Why, Mr Hols,” said he ”I suppose, then, if you have never heard of Godfrey Staunton, you don't know Cyril Overton either?”

Holood humouredly

”Great Scott!” cried the athlete ”Why, I was first reserve for England against Wales, and I've skippered the 'Varsity all this year But that's nothing! I didn't think there was a soul in England who didn't know Godfrey Staunton, the crack three-quarter, Cae, Blackheath, and five Internationals Good Lord! Mr Hol giant's naive astonishment

”You live in a different world to me, Mr Overton--a sweeter and healthier one My ramifications stretch out into many sections of society, but never, I am happy to say, into aland However, your unexpected visit thisshows me that even in that world of fresh air and fair play, thereyou to sit down and to tell me, slowly and quietly, exactly what it is that has occurred, and how you desire that I should help you”

Young Overton's face assumed the bothered look of thehis rees, with many repetitions and obscurities which I e story before us

”It's this way, Mr Holer teae 'Varsity, and Godfrey Staunton is my best man To-morroe play Oxford Yesterday we all came up, and we settled at Bentley's private hotel At ten o'clock I went round and saw that all the fellows had gone to roost, for I believe in strict training and plenty of sleep to keep a team fit I had a word or tith Godfrey before he turned in He seemed to me to be pale and bothered I asked hiht--just a touch of headache I bade hiht and left hih-looking man with a beard called with a note for Godfrey He had not gone to bed, and the note was taken to his room Godfrey read it, and fell back in a chair as if he had been pole-axed The porter was so scared that he was going to fetch me, but Godfrey stopped hiether Then he went downstairs, said a feords to thein the hall, and the two of theether The last that the porter saw of the down the street in the direction of the Strand ThisGodfrey's roos were all just as I had seen theone off at a er, and no word has come from him since I don't believe he will ever come back He was a sportsman, was Godfrey, down to hisand let in his skipper if it were not for so for hiood, and we should never see hiain”

Sherlock Holular narrative

”What did you do?” he asked

”I wired to Ca had been heard of him there I have had an answer No one has seen hie?”

”Yes, there is a late train--quarter-past eleven”