The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes 6)

"I am sure the scruple does you honour, Mr. Sandeford. But I have namedthat price, so I intend to stick to it."

"Well, it is very handsome of you, Mr. Holmes. I brought the bust upwith me, as you asked me to do. Here it is!" He opened his bag, and atlast we saw placed upon our table a complete specimen of that bust whichwe had already seen more than once in fragments.

Holmes took a paper from his pocket and laid a ten-pound note upon thetable.

"You will kindly sign that paper, Mr. Sandeford, in the presence ofthese witnesses. It is simply to say that you transfer every possibleright that you ever had in the bust to me. I am a methodical man, yousee, and you never know what turn events might take afterwards. Thankyou, Mr. Sandeford; here is your money, and I wish you a very goodevening."

When our visitor had disappeared Sherlock Holmes's movements were suchas to rivet our attention. He began by taking a clean white cloth froma drawer and laying it over the table. Then he placed his newly-acquiredbust in the centre of the cloth. Finally, he picked up his hunting-cropand struck Napoleon a sharp blow on the top of the head. The figurebroke into fragments, and Holmes bent eagerly over the shatteredremains. Next instant, with a loud shout of triumph, he held up onesplinter, in which a round, dark object was fixed like a plum in apudding.

"Gentlemen," he cried, "let me introduce you to the famous black pearlof the Borgias."

Lestrade and I sat silent for a moment, and then, with a spontaneousimpulse, we both broke out clapping as at the well-wrought crisis of aplay. A flush of colour sprang to Holmes's pale cheeks, and he bowed tous like the master dramatist who receives the homage of his audience.It was at such moments that for an instant he ceased to be a reasoningmachine, and betrayed his human love for admiration and applause. Thesame singularly proud and reserved nature which turned away with disdainfrom popular notoriety was capable of being moved to its depths byspontaneous wonder and praise from a friend.

"Yes, gentlemen," said he, "it is the most famous pearl now existingin the world, and it has been my good fortune, by a connected chain ofinductive reasoning, to trace it from the Prince of Colonna's bedroom atthe Dacre Hotel, where it was lost, to the interior of this, the last ofthe six busts of Napoleon which were manufactured by Gelder and Co.,of Stepney. You will remember, Lestrade, the sensation caused by thedisappearance of this valuable jewel, and the vain efforts of the Londonpolice to recover it. I was myself consulted upon the case; but I wasunable to throw any light upon it. Suspicion fell upon the maid of thePrincess, who was an Italian, and it was proved that she had a brotherin London, but we failed to trace any connection between them. Themaid's name was Lucretia Venucci, and there is no doubt in my mind thatthis Pietro who was murdered two nights ago was the brother. I have beenlooking up the dates in the old files of the paper, and I find that thedisappearance of the pearl was exactly two days before the arrest ofBeppo for some crime of violence, an event which took place in thefactory of Gelder and Co., at the very moment when these busts werebeing made. Now you clearly see the sequence of events, though you seethem, of course, in the inverse order to the way in which they presentedthemselves to me. Beppo had the pearl in his possession. He may havestolen it from Pietro, he may have been Pietro's confederate, hemay have been the go-between of Pietro and his sister. It is of noconsequence to us which is the correct solution.

"The main fact is that he HAD the pearl, and at that moment, when it wason his person, he was pursued by the police. He made for the factory inwhich he worked, and he knew that he had only a few minutes in which toconceal this enormously valuable prize, which would otherwise be foundon him when he was searched. Six plaster casts of Napoleon were dryingin the passage. One of them was still soft. In an instant Beppo, askilful workman, made a small hole in the wet plaster, dropped in thepearl, and with a few touches covered over the aperture once more. Itwas an admirable hiding-place. No one could possibly find it. But Beppowas condemned to a year's imprisonment, and in the meanwhile his sixbusts were scattered over London. He could not tell which contained histreasure. Only by breaking them could he see. Even shaking would tellhim nothing, for as the plaster was wet it was probable that the pearlwould adhere to it--as, in fact, it has done. Beppo did not despair, andhe conducted his search with considerable ingenuity and perseverance.Through a cousin who works with Gelder he found out the retail firms whohad bought the busts. He managed to find employment with Morse Hudson,and in that way tracked down three of them. The pearl was not there.Then, with the help of some Italian EMPLOYEE, he succeeded in finding outwhere the other three busts had gone. The first was at Harker's. Therehe was dogged by his confederate, who held Beppo responsible for theloss of the pearl, and he stabbed him in the scuffle which followed."

"If he was his confederate why should he carry his photograph?" I asked.

"As a means of tracing him if he wished to inquire about hi

m from anythird person. That was the obvious reason. Well, after the murderI calculated that Beppo would probably hurry rather than delay hismovements. He would fear that the police would read his secret, and sohe hastened on before they should get ahead of him. Of course, I couldnot say that he had not found the pearl in Harker's bust. I had not evenconcluded for certain that it was the pearl; but it was evident to methat he was looking for something, since he carried the bust pastthe other houses in order to break it in the garden which had a lampoverlooking it. Since Harker's bust was one in three the chances wereexactly as I told you, two to one against the pearl being inside it.There remained two busts, and it was obvious that he would go for theLondon one first. I warned the inmates of the house, so as to avoida second tragedy, and we went down with the happiest results. By thattime, of course, I knew for certain that it was the Borgia pearl that wewere after. The name of the murdered man linked the one event with theother. There only remained a single bust--the Reading one--and the pearlmust be there. I bought it in your presence from the owner--and there itlies."

We sat in silence for a moment.

"Well," said Lestrade, "I've seen you handle a good many cases, Mr.Holmes, but I don't know that I ever knew a more workmanlike one thanthat. We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are veryproud of you, and if you come down to-morrow there's not a man, fromthe oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad toshake you by the hand."

"Thank you!" said Holmes. "Thank you!" and as he turned away it seemedto me that he was more nearly moved by the softer human emotions than Ihad ever seen him. A moment later he was the cold and practical thinkeronce more. "Put the pearl in the safe, Watson," said he, "and get outthe papers of the Conk-Singleton forgery case. Good-bye, Lestrade. Ifany little problem comes your way I shall be happy, if I can, to giveyou a hint or two as to its solution."

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THE STRAND MAGAZINE Vol. 27 JUNE, 1904 THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. By ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

IX.--The Adventure of the Three Students.

IT was in the year '95 that a combination of events, into which I neednot enter, caused Mr. Sherlock Holmes and myself to spend some weeks inone of our great University towns, and it was during this time that thesmall but instructive adventure which I am about to relate befell us. Itwill be obvious that any details which would help the reader to exactlyidentify the college or the criminal would be injudicious and offensive.So painful a scandal may well be allowed to die out. With due discretionthe incident itself may, however, be described, since it serves toillustrate some of those qualities for which my friend was remarkable.I will endeavour in my statement to avoid such terms as would serveto limit the events to any particular place, or give a clue as to thepeople concerned.

We were residing at the time in furnished lodgings close to a librarywhere Sherlock Holmes was pursuing some laborious researches in earlyEnglish charters--researches which led to results so striking that theymay be the subject of one of my future narratives. Here it was that oneevening we received a visit from an acquaintance, Mr. Hilton Soames,tutor and lecturer at the College of St. Luke's. Mr. Soames was a tall,spare man, of a nervous and excitable temperament. I had always knownhim to be restless in his manner, but on this particular occasion he wasin such a state of uncontrollable agitation that it was clear somethingvery unusual had occurred.

"I trust, Mr. Holmes, that you can spare me a few hours of your valuabletime. We have had a very painful incident at St. Luke's, and really, butfor the happy chance of your being in the town, I should have been at aloss what to do."

"I am very busy just now, and I desire no distractions," my friendanswered. "I should much prefer that you called in the aid of thepolice."

"No, no, my dear sir; such a course is utterly impossible. When once thelaw is evoked it cannot be stayed again, and this is just one of thosecases where, for the credit of the college, it is most essential toavoid scandal. Your discretion is as well known as your powers, and youare the one man in the world who can help me. I beg you, Mr. Holmes, todo what you can."

My friend's temper had not improved since he had been deprived of thecongenial surroundings of Baker Street. Without his scrap-books, hischemicals, and his homely untidiness, he was an uncomfortable man. Heshrugged his shoulders in ungracious acquiescence, while our visitorin hurried words and with much excitable gesticulation poured forth hisstory.

"I must explain to you, Mr. Holmes, that to-morrow is the first dayof the examination for the Fortescue Scholarship. I am one of theexaminers. My subject is Greek, and the first of the papers consists ofa large passage of Greek translation which the candidate has not seen.This passage is printed on the examination paper, and it would naturallybe an immense advantage if the candidate could prepare it in advance.For this reason great care is taken to keep the paper secret.

"To-day about three o'clock the proofs of this paper arrived from theprinters. The exercise consists of half a chapter of Thucydides. I hadto read it over carefully, as the text must be absolutely correct. Atfour-thirty my task was not yet completed. I had, however, promised totake tea in a friend's rooms, so I left the proof upon my desk. I wasabsent rather more than an hour.

"You are aware, Mr. Holmes, that our college doors are double--a greenbaize one within and a heavy oak one without. As I approached my outerdoor I was amazed to see a key in it. For an instant I imagined that Ihad left my own there, but on feeling in my pocket I found that it wasall right. The only duplicate which existed, so far as I knew, was thatwhich belonged to my servant, Bannister, a man who has looked after myroom for ten years, and whose honesty is absolutely above suspicion. Ifound that the key was indeed his, that he had entered my room to knowif I wanted tea, and that he had very carelessly left the key in thedoor when he came out. His visit to my room must have been within a veryfew minutes of my leaving it. His forgetfulness about the key wouldhave mattered little upon any other occasion, but on this one day it hasproduced the most deplorable consequences.

"The moment I looked at my table I was aware that someone had rummagedamong my papers. The proof was in three long slips. I had left them alltogether. Now, I found that one of them was lying on the floor, one wason the side table near the window, and the third was where I had leftit."

Holmes stirred for the first time.

"The first page on the floor, the second in the window, the third whereyou left it," said he.