Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-08-29
was sunburned, reckless-eycd fellow.

with network Of lines and wrinkles
all over his mahogany features, which
told of hard, opcn-air life. There
was a singular prominence about his
bearded chin which marked a man
who was not to be easily turned from
his purpose. His age may have been
fifty or Whereabouts. for his black,
curly hair was thiclly shot with gray.
His face in repose was not an un-
pleasing one, though his heavy brows
and aggressive chin gave him, as had
lately seen, terrible expression when
moved to anger. He sat now with his
handcuffed hands upon his lap and his
head sunk upon his breast, while he
looked with his keen. twinkling eyes
at the box which had been the cause
of his ill-doings. It seemed to me that
there was more sorrow than anger in
his rigid and contained countenance.
Once he looked up at me with CLEAN
of something like humor in his eyes
well, Jonathan Small, " said Holmes,
lighting a cigar, Il am sorry that it
has come to this
And so am !, he answered, frankly.
81 don't believe that can swing over
the job. l give you my word on the
book that / never raised my hand
against Mr.. Sholto. 1t was that little
hell-hound Tonga who shot one of his
cursed darts into him. had no part
in it, sir. 1 was as grievcd as if it had
been my blood-relation. / welted the
little devil with the slack end of the
rope for it, but it was done, and could
not undo it again"
Have cigar" said Holmes: ''ana
you had best take a pull out of my flask,
for you are very wet. How could You
expect so small and weak man as this
black fellow to overpower Mr.. Sholto
and hold him while you were climbing
the rope?
s.You seem to know as much about it
as if you were there. sir. The truth is
that l hoped to find the room clear.
l knew the habits of the house pretty
well. and it was the time when Mr..
Sholto usually went down to his sup
per. 1 shall make no secret of the
business. The best defense that / can
make is just the simple truth. Now. if
it had been the old major / would have
swung for him with a light heart.
would have thought no more of knit
But it's cursed hard that should be
Jagged over this young Sholto, with
whom had no quarrel whatever"
''You are under the charge of Mr..
Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard. He
is going to bring you up to my rooms,
and shall ask you for true account
of the matter. You must make a clean
breast of it, for if you do hope that
may be of use to you. 1 think l can
prove that the poison acts SO quickly
that the man was dead before ever you
reached the room"
THAT he was, sir. never got such
a turn Il my life as when 1 saw him
grinning at me with his head on his
shoulder as 1 climbed through the WIN
dow. It fairly shook n e, sir. I'd have
half killed Tonga for it if he had not
scrambled off. That was how he
of his darts. too. as he tells me,
which 1 dare say helped to put
you on our track; though how
you kept on it is more than 1 can tell.
don't feel no malice against you for
it. But it does seem a queer thing"
he added, with bitter smile, ''that /,
who have a fair claim TO nigh upon
half million of money should spend
the first half of my life building
breakwater in the Andamans, and am
like to spend the other half diggin'
drains at DartmoOr. It was an evil
day for me when first I clapped eyes
upon the merchant Achmet and had to
do with the Agra treasure, which never
brought anything but curse yet upon
the man who owned it. To him it
brought murder. to Maj. Sholto it
brought fear and guilt, to me it has
meant slavery for life"
At this moment Athelney Jones
thrust his broad face and heavy shout
ders into the tiny cabin. ''Ouite fam
lily party" he remarked Il think j
shall have q pull at that flask, Holmes.
Well, think we may all congratulate
each other. Pity we didn't take the
Other alive; but there was no choice. I
say, Holmes, you must confess that you
cut it rather fine. 1t was all that we
could do to overhaul her"
''A11 is well that ends WELL" said
Holmes. But / certainly did not
know that the Aurora was such a
clipper"
''Smit- says that she is one OF the
fastest launches on the river. and that
if he had had another man to help him
caught her. He swears he knows moth
ing of this Norwood business"
Neither he did, cried our prisoner
mot word. chose his launch be-
cause heard that she was flyer. We
told him nothing, but we paid him
well, and he was to get something
handsome if we reached our vessel, the
Esmeralda, at Gravesend, outward
bound for the Brazils."
well, if he has done no wrong we
shall see that 90 wrong comes to him.
If we are pretty quick in catching our
men. we are not SO quick in condemn
ing them" 1t was amusing to notice
how the consequential Jones was al
ready beginning to give himself airs on
the strength of the capture. From the
lock Holmes face. could see that the
speech had not been lost upon him.
I'VE will be at Vauxhall bridge
said Jones, land shall land
you, DE-. Watson. with the treasure
box. I need hardly tell you that am
taking a very grave responsibility upon
myself in doing this. 1t is most irreg-
ular: bnt of course an agreement is an
agreement. / must, however, as mat
ter CT duty, send an inspector with
you. since you have so valuable
charge. You will drive, no doubt?'
Yes, shall drive
1T is pity there is no key, that we