If ever I permit
you to chronicle any more of my little problems, Watson,
I foresee that you will enliven your pages by an account of
the singular adventure of the Napoleonic busts."
When we met again next evening Lestrade was furnished with much
information concerning our prisoner. His name, it appeared, was
Beppo, second name unknown. He was a well-known ne'er-do-well
among the Italian colony. He had once been a skilful sculptor
and had earned an honest living, but he had taken to evil
courses and had twice already been in gaol -- once for a petty
theft and once, as we had already heard, for stabbing a
fellow-countryman. He could talk English perfectly well.
His reasons for destroying the busts were still unknown, and he
refused to answer any questions upon the subject; but the police
had discovered that these same busts might very well have been
made by his own hands, since he was engaged in this class of
work at the establishment of Gelder and Co. To all this
information, much of which we already knew, Holmes listened with
polite attention; but I, who knew him so well, could clearly see
that his thoughts were elsewhere, and I detected a mixture of
mingled uneasiness and expectation beneath that mask which he
was wont to assume.
Pages:
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340