The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-10


 he had done with the three missing stones.
 . You may as well face the natter said I; you have been caught in the act. and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. If you but mSae such guilt more henous. If you but make such us where the beryls are, all shall be for given and forgotten
 s.H Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it. he answered, turning away from me with a sheer. l saw that he was too hardened for any word of mine to influence him There was but one way for it. I called in the inspector, and gave him into custody. search was made at once, not only of his person. but of his room, and of every portion of his ho,lse where he could have possibly con- cealed the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the wretched boy. open his mouth for all of our persua- sjons and our threats This morning he was removed to a cell, and l, after go- ing through all the police formalites, have hurried round to you to implore vou to use your skill in unravelling the matter The police have openly confessed that they can at present make nothing of it. You may go to any expense which vou think necessary. I have already of fered a reward of e10OO. My God. what shall do! have lost my honor, my gems and my son in one night. Oh, what shall l dol"
 He put hand on either side of his head, and rocked himself to and fro, dron- ing to himself like a child whose grief has got beyond words.
 Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few moments, with his brows knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire.
 Do you receive much eompany?' he asked.
 .tNone, save my partner with his fam fly, and an occasional friend of Arthurs Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No one else, 1 think Do you go out much in society?' Arthur does. Mary and | stay at home, We neither of us care for it. "That is unusual in young girl.' "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She is four and twenty"
 This matter, from what you say, seems to have been shock to her also"
 "Terriblel She is even more affected than l."
 You have neither of you any doubt as to your sons guilt2"
 How can we have, when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet in his hands?"
 T hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of the eoronet at all injured?''
 Yes; 1t was twisted.' Do you not think, then that he might have been trying to straighten it?' God bless youl You are doing what you can for him and for me. But 1t is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If his purpose were inno- cent, why did he not say so?" Precisely. And if it were guilty. why did he not invent a lie? His silence ap- pears to me to cut both ways. There ! are several singular points about the case What did the police think of the noise which awoke you from your sleep. "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur closing his bedroom door"
 "A likely storyl As if man bent on felony would slam his door so as to wake household. What did they say, then, of the disappearance of these gems?'
 They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture in the hope of finding them"
 Have they thought of looking outside ! the house?"
 ''Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has already been minutely examined" 1 Now, my dear sir" said Holmes, lis it not obvious to you now that this mat ter really strikes very much deeper than either you or the police were at first in- | cllned to think? 1t appeared to you to I be simple case; to me it seems ex- ceedingly complex Consider what is in | volved in your theory. You suppose that your son came down from his bed, went, | at great risk to your dressing-room, | opened your bureau, took out your coro- net, broke off by main force a small DOT ! ton of it went off to some other place, concealed three gems out of the thirty nine with such skill that nobody can | find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six into the room in which | he exposed himself to the greatest danger of being discovered. l ask you now, Is such a theory tenable?" N
 But what other is there?" cried the l banker. with 0 gesture of despair. If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain them?''
 1 Tt is our task to find that out" re- l piled Holmes; "so now, If you please 1 MT. Holder, we will set off to Streatham together and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely Into details"
 My friend insisted upon my accompany l ing them in their expedition, which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. 1 con- /, fess that the guilt of the bankers son appeared to me to be as obvious as | 1t did to his unhappy father, but still l ! had such faith in Holmes judgment that l felt that there must be some grounds | for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted explanation. He hard ly spoke a word the whole way out to the southern suburb, but sat with his chin l upon his breast and his hat drawn over lis eyes, sunk in the deepest thought Our client appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope which had 1 haan r.reaantad In him and he aver, hrnla