The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1905-08-09
The Return of
Sherlock Holmes
By A. Conan Doyle
Continued from last week J

much fear that British Jur1eS nave not |
yet attained that pitch Of intelligence
when they will give the preference to
my theories over Lestrade's facts"
Ibid you 60 to Blackheath?"
Eyes, Watson, I went there, and I
found very quickly that the late la
cradle BLACKBOARD. The father was
away in search of his son. The mother
was at home-a little, fluffy, blue eyed
person, in q tremor of fear and indig- |
nation. OF course she would not admit |
even the possibility of his guilt. But
she would not express either surprise
or regret over the fate Of Oldacre. On
such bitterness that she was uncon-
1ciously considerably strengthening the
case Of the police, for, of course, if her
son had heard her speak of the man in
this fashion it would predispose him
toward hatred and violence. He was
more like malignant and cunning ape
than human being said She and he
always was, ever since,he was young
-nan.'
you knew him at that timer said L.
Yes, knew him well: in fact, he
was an old sutton Of mine. Thank heav-
EN- that had the sense to turn away
from him and to marry better, il
poorer, man. l was engaged to him.
Mr.. Holmes. when heard a shocking
story of how he had turned d cat loose
IN an aviary, and l was 80 Mortified at
his brutal cruelty that would have
nothing more to do with him. She rum
mayed in bureau, and presently she
produced photograph of woman
'shamefully defaced and mutilated with
q knife. That is my own photograph
she said. He sent it to me in that
state, with his curse, upon my wedding
morning
"'Well, said I, at least he has for.
given you now, since he has left all his
property to your son.
Neither my son nor I want any
thing from Jonas Oldacre, dead or
alive" she cried, with proper spirit.
There is God in heaven, Mr. Holmes.
and that same God who has, punished
that wicked man will show in his own
tSO0N tuot lily SUI uduuS are
guiltless of his blood.
We'll, tried one or two leads. but
could get at nothing which would help 4
our hypothesis and several points
which would make against it, l gave
1t up at last, and off 1 went to Nor.
wood
NThis place. Deep Dene House. is a
big modern yilla of staring brick stand
Ing back in it's own grounds, with
laurel dumped lawn in front of it. To
ahe right and some distance back from
The road was the timber yard which
had been the scene Of the fire. Here's
q rough plan on leaf Of my notebook.
ahjs window on the left is the one
(which opens into Oldacre's room. You
can look into it from the road, you see.
That is about the only bit of consola-
ton l have had today. Lestrade was
not there, but his head constable did
the honors. They had just found
great treasure trove. They had spent
the morning raking among the ashes
~of the burned wood pile, and besides
the charred organic remains they had
secured several discolored metal disks
a examined them with care, and there
was no doubt that they were trouser
buttons. l even distinguished that one
sOf them was marked with the name of
sdyams, who was Oldacre's tailor.
then worked the lawn very carefully
FOR signs and traces, but this drought
mas made everything as hard as iron
Nothing was to be seen save that some
body or bundle had been dragged
through low privet hedge which is in
"a line with the wood pile All that. of
course, fits in with the official theory.
crawled about the lawn with an
August sun on my back, but | got ,lp
Mt the end Of an hour no wiser than
before.
-'Well, after this fiasco | went into
the bedroom and examined that also.
The blood stains were very slight, mere
smears and discolorations, but I'M
doubleday fresh. The stick had been
removed, but there also the marks
were slight. There is no doubt abou,
the stick belonging to our client He
admits it. Footmarks of both men
could be made out on the carpet. but
none of any third person, which again
is trick for the other side. They
,were piling up their score all the time
md we were at a standstill
"Only one little CLEAN of hope did !
get, and yet it amounted to nothing
4 examined the contents of the safe,
,msst Of which had been taken out and
lseft on the table The papers had been
sGnade up into sealed envelopes, one or
two of which had been opened by the
Dollce. They were NOT, so far as
vcoslld judge, of any great value. nor
aid the bank book show that Mr.. Old
acre was in such very aff1uent circum-
stances. But 1t seemed to me that all
sihe papers were not there. There
swere illusions to some eds-posslbly
the more uable-which / could not
find. This, of course. if we could def
lnitely prove it, would turn Lestrade's
argument against himself. for who
would steal thing il he knew that he
would shortly inherit it?
FINALLY having drawn every other