Pagina 344 van 657

"Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say,

Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here

with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place

of the one which your family is now devouring."

When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and

held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just

see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and

focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet

baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a

bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found

in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is

remarkable in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save

that it is blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its

youth, it has already a sinister history. There have been two

murders, a vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies

brought about for the sake of this forty-grain weight of

crystallised charcoal. Who would think that so pretty a toy would

be a purveyor to the gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in

my strong box now and drop a line to the Countess to say that we

have it."