ne of them was still
soft. in an instant beppo, a skilful workman, made a small
hole in the wet plaster, dropped in the pearl, and with a
few touches covered over the aperture once more. it was an
admirable hiding-place. no one could possibly find it.
but beppo was condemned to a year's imprisonment, and in
the meanwhile his six busts were scattered over london. he
could not tell which contained his treasure. only by
breaking them could he see. even shaking would tell him
nothing, for as the plaster was wet it was probable that
the pearl would adhere to it -- as, in fact, it has done.
beppo did not despair, and he conducted his search with
considerable ingenuity and perseverance. through a cousin
who works with gelder he found out the retail firms who had
bought the busts. he managed to find employment with morse
hudson, and in that way tracked down three of them. the
pearl was not there. then, with the help of some italian
_employe_, {2} he succeeded in finding out where the other
three busts had gone. the first was at harker's. there he
was dogged by his confederate, who held beppo responsible
for the loss of the pearl, and he stabbed him in the
scuffle which followed."
"if he was his confederate why should he carry his
photograph?" i asked.
"as a means of tracing him if he wished to inquire about
him from any third person. that was the obvious reason.
well, after the murder i calculated that beppo would
probably hurry rather than delay his movements. he would
fear that the police would read his secret, and so he
hastened on before they should get ahead of him. of
course, i could not say that he had not found the pearl in
harker's bust. i had not even concluded for certain that
it was the pearl; but it was evident to me that he was
looking for something, since he carried the bust past the
other houses in order to break it in the garden which had a
lamp overlooking it. since harker's bust was one in three
the chances were exactly as i told you, two to one against
the pearl being inside it. there remained two busts, and
it was obvious that he would go for the london one first.
i warned the inmates of the house, so as to avoid a second
tragedy, and we went down with the happiest results. by
that time, of course, i knew for certain that it was the
borgia pearl that we were after. the name of the murdered
man linked the one event with the other. there only
remained a single bust -- the reading one -- and the pearl
must be there. i bought it in your presence from the owner
-- and there it lies."
we sat in silence for a moment.
"well," said lestrade, "i've seen you handle a good many
cases, mr. holmes, but i don't know that i ever knew a more
workmanlike one than that. we're not jealous of you at
scotland yard. no, sir, we are very proud of you, and if
you come down to-morrow there's not a man, from the oldest
inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad
to shake you by the hand."
"thank you!" said holmes. "thank you!" and as he turned
away it seemed to me that he was more nearly moved by the
softer human emotions than i had ever seen him. a moment
later he was the cold and practical thinker once more.
"put the pearl in the safe, watson," said he, "and get out
the papers of the conk-singleton forgery case. good-bye,
lestrade. if any little problem comes your way i shall be
happy, if i can, to give you a hint or two as to its
solution."
{-------------------------------------------------------}
{--------------------- end of text ---------------------}
{-------------------------------------------------------}
{-------------------- textual notes --------------------}
{1} {"idee fixe": the first e of "idee" has a forward}
{accent (/)}
{2} {"_employe_": the final e has a forward accent (/)}
{------------------ end textual notes ------------------}
{-------------------------------------------------------}
{3stu, rev 4, 1/17/96 rms, 4th proofing}
{the adventure of the three students, arthur conan doyle}
{source: the strand magazine, 27 (june 1904)}
{etext prepared by roger squires rsquires@nmia.com}
{braces({}) in the text indicate textual end-notes}
{underscores (_) in the text indicate italics}
ix. -- the adventure of the three students.
it was in the year '95 that a combination of events, into
which i need not enter, caused mr. sherlock holmes and
myself to spend some weeks in one of our great university
towns, and it was during this time that the small but
instructive adventure which i am about to relate befell us.
it will be obvious that any details which would help the
reader to exactly identify the college or the criminal
would be injudicious and offensive. so painful a scandal
may well be allowed to die out. with due discretion the
incident itself may, however, be described,
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