第39期:失而复得(10)

"I told him that we would give him a price for the stones he held -- 1000 pounds apiece. That brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown.

'Why, dash it all! ' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the three! ' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution.

Off I set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all was right,

and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after what I may call a really hard day's work." "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said the banker, rising.

"Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it.

And now I must fly to my dear boy to apologize to him for the wrong which I have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now."

"I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than sufficient punishment."