Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. “I will tell you itjust as it happened, sir,” said he. “When Horner had been arrested,it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get away withthe stone at once, for I did not know at what moment the policemight not take it into their heads to search me and my room.
There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. I wentout, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister’s house.
She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in BrixtonRoad, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way thereevery man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective;and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring downmy face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked mewhat was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that Ihad been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went intothe back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would bebest to do.
“I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, andhas just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had metme, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how theycould get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true tome, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up mymind to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him intomy confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone intomoney. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agoniesI had gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at anymoment be seized and searched, and there would be the stone inmy waistcoat pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time andlooking at the geese which were waddling about round my feet,and suddenly an idea came into my head which showed me how Icould beat the best detective that ever lived.
“My sister had told me some weeks before that I might havethe pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that shewas always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, andin it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shedin the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds—a fine bigone, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill open,I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger could reach.
The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass along its gullet anddown into its crop. But the creature flapped and struggled, andout came my sister to know what was the matter. As I turned tospeak to her the brute broke loose and fluttered off among theothers.
“ ‘Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?’ says she.
“ ‘Well,’ said I, ‘you said you’d give me one for Christmas, and Iwas feeling which was the fattest.’
“ ‘Oh,’ says she, ‘we’ve set yours aside for you—Jem’s bird, wecall it. It’s the big white one over yonder. There’s twenty-six ofthem, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen forthe market.’
“ ‘Thank you, Maggie,’ says I; ‘but if it is all the same to you, I’drather have that one I was handling just now.’
“ ‘The other is a good three pound heavier,’ said she, ‘and wefattened it expressly for you.’
“ ‘Never mind. I’ll have the other, and I’ll take it now,’ said I.
“ ‘Oh, just as you like,’ said she, a little huffed. ‘Which is it youwant, then?’
“ ‘That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of theflock.’
“ ‘Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.’
“Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the birdall the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was aman that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed until hechoked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My heart turnedto water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I knew that someterrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, rushed back to mysister’s, and hurried into the back yard. There was not a bird to beseen there.
“ ‘Where are they all, Maggie?’ I cried.
“ ‘Gone to the dealer’s, Jem.’
“ ‘Which dealer’s?’
“ ‘Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.’
“ ‘But was there another with a barred tail?’ I asked, ‘the same asthe one I chose?’
“ ‘Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could nevertell them apart.’
“Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as myfeet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold thelot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where theyhad gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has alwaysanswered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad.
Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now—and now I ammyself a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth forwhich I sold my character. God help me! God help me!” He burstinto convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands.
There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathingand by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes’ finger-tips uponthe edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door.
“Get out!” said he.
“What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!”
“No more words. Get out!”
And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatterupon the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of runningfootfalls from the street.
“After all, Watson,” said Holmes, reaching up his hand forhis clay pipe, “I am not retained by the police to supply theirdeficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing;but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case mustcollapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is justpossible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrongagain; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and youmake him a jail-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of forgiveness.
Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem,and its solution is its own reward. If you will have the goodnessto touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin another investigation, inwhich, also a bird will be the chief feature.”
The Adventure of the Speckled Band