Лучшие расследования Шерлока Холмса / The Best of Sherlock Holmes

But my memory and my girl! Both could be saved if IВ could but silence that foul tongue. IВ did it, Mr. Holmes. IВ would do it again. Deeply as IВ have sinned, IВ have led aВ life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more than IВ could suffer. IВ struck him down with no more compunction than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought back his son; but IВ had gained the cover of the wood, though IВ was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which IВ had dropped in my flight.

“Well, it is not for me to judge you,” said Holmes as the old man signed the statement which had been drawn out. “I pray that we may never be exposed to such a temptation.”

“I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?”

“In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the Assizes.

“Farewell, then,” said the old man solemnly. “Your own deathbeds, when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace which you have given to mine.” Tottering and shaking in all his giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room.

“God help us!” said Holmes after a long silence. “Why does fate play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such a case as this that I do not think of Baxter’s words, and say, �There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.’”

James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of aВ number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their past.

The Five Orange Pips

When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes cases between the years ’82 and ’90, I am faced by so many which present strange and interesting features that it is no easy matter to know which to choose and which to leave.