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DarqueDante
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test2

Dataset card Data Studio Files
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beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.'
"'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered,
turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened for
any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for it. I
called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search was made
at once not only of his person but of his room and of every portion
of the house where he could possibly have concealed the gems; but no
trace of them could be found, nor would the wretched boy open his
mouth for all our persuasions and our threats. This morning he was
removed to a cell, and I, after going through all the police
formalities, have hurried round to you to implore you 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 you think necessary. I have already offered a reward of
£1000. My God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and
my son in one night. Oh, what shall I do!"
He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to and
fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got beyond
words.
Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows
knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire.
"Do you receive much company?" he asked.
"None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of
Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No one
else, I think."
"Do you go out much in society?"
"Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for it."
"That is unusual in a 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 a shock to her
also."
"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 coronet in
his hands."
"I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of the
coronet at all injured?"
"Yes, it was twisted."
"Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to straighten
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? If his 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 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's closing his
bedroom door."
"A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door so as
to wake a 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."
"Now, my dear sir," said Holmes. "is it not obvious to you now that
this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you or the
police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you to be a
simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider what is
involved by 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 coronet, broke off by main force a small portion 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. I ask you now, is
such a theory tenable?"
"But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of
despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain
them?"
"It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if you