"Terrible! She is even more affected than I."
"You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?"
"How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronetin his hands."
"I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder ofthe coronet at all injured?"
"Yes, it was twisted."
"Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying tostraighten it?"
"God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me.But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? Ifhis purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?"
"Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie?His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are severalsingular points about the case. What did the police think of thenoise which awoke you from your sleep?"
"They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing hisbedroom door."
"A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his doorso as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of thedisappearance of these gems?"
"They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniturein the hope of finding them."
"Have they thought of looking outside the house?"
"Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden hasalready been minutely examined."
"Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you nowthat this matter really strikes very much deeper than either youor the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to youto be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Considerwhat is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son camedown from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room,opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by mainforce a small portion of it, went off to some other place,concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill thatnobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-sixinto the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest dangerof being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?"
"But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture ofdespair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explainthem?"
"It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, ifyou please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together,and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely intodetails."
My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition,which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathywere deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. Iconfess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to beas obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had suchfaith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be somegrounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the acceptedexplanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to thesouthern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and hishat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our clientappeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hopewhich had been presented to him, and he even broke into adesultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railwayjourney and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modestresidence of the great financier.
Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standingback a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with asnow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large i
ron gateswhich closed the entrance. On the right side was a small woodenthicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedgesstretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming thetradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to thestables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being apublic, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standingat the door and walked slowly all round the house, across thefront, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the gardenbehind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and Iwent into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he shouldreturn. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened anda young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height,slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker againstthe absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have everseen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, werebloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she sweptsilently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense ofgrief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was themore striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strongcharacter, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregardingmy presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her handover his head with a sweet womanly caress.
"You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have younot, dad?" she asked.
"No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom."
"But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman'sinstincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you willbe sorry for having acted so harshly."
"Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?"
"Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you shouldsuspect him."
"How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him withthe coronet in his hand?"
"Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do takemy word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and sayno more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur inprison!"
"I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary!Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequencesto me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentlemandown from London to inquire more deeply into it."
"This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me.
"No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round inthe stable lane now."
"The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can hehope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir,that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth,that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime."