But that my girlshould be entangled in the same
meshes which held me was morethan I could suffer.
In a hundred other ways he has helped
him.
I promise you that I shallnot use it unless it is
absolutely needed. I would call your attention very particularly to twopoints.
Ithink that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for allthat he has
suffered.
Deeply as I have sinned,I have led a life of
martyrdom to atone for it.
We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have
toldme. The other was his singular dyingreference to a rat.
We are in acivilised land here, and we cant have
tomfoolery of this kind.
I dontknow quite what to do, and I should value
your advice.
There is no other, said I; but thepapers must be
those that are destroyed. Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in myroom to-day, and
send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.
Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life
isdespaired of.
And yet you cannot guard yourself tooclosely. Those
are thecrucial points upon which the case depends. Sherlock Holmes was transformed
when he was hot upon such a scentas this.
You said that you wished tosee me here to avoid
scandal. Theson, as far as he knew, was in Bristol.
Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen
in his handand a bundle of paper before him. But have you, I asked, formed any
definite conception as towhat these perils are? Theories are all very well, but we
have to deal with ahard-headed British jury.