[SPEAKER_00]: Hello and welcome to the Sherlock Holmes Bedtime Stories podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's time to relax.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let your body fall into a comfortable position in your bed and drift gently into a state of total relaxation with tonight's story.
[SPEAKER_00]: A scandal in Bohemia,
[SPEAKER_00]: Part 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: To Sherlock Holmes, she is always the woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.
[SPEAKER_00]: In his eyes, she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler.
[SPEAKER_00]: All emotions and that
[SPEAKER_00]: were apparent to his cold, precise, but admirably balanced mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as a lover, he would have placed himself in a false position.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never spoke of the softer passions save with a job and a sneer.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were admirable things for the observer, excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finally adjusted temperament, was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high power lenses would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet there was but one woman to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had seen little of homes lately.
[SPEAKER_00]: My marriage had drifted us away from each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: My own complete happiness and the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first finds himself master of his own establishment was sufficient to absorb all my attention, while homes, who loathed every form of society with his whole Bohemian soul.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remained in our lodgings in Bakerstreet buried among his old books and alternating from week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug and the fierce energy of his own key nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was still, as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime and occupied his immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation, in following out those clues and clearing up those mysteries which had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police.
[SPEAKER_00]: From time to time I heard some vague account of his doings, of his summons to a deso in the case of the trep of murder.
[SPEAKER_00]: of his clearing up of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trinkhamoli, and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely shared with all the readers of the Daily Press, I knew little of my former friend and companion.
[SPEAKER_00]: One night, it was on the 20th of March 1888.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was returning from a journey to a patient for I had now returned to civil practice when my way led me through Baker Street.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated in my mind with my wooing and with the dark incidents of the study in Scarlett, I was seized with a keen desire to see homes again and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers
[SPEAKER_00]: His rooms were brilliantly lit and even as I looked up, I saw his tall, spare figure passed twice in a dark silhouette against the blind.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasp behind him.
[SPEAKER_00]: To me, who knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their own story.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had risen out of his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which had formerly been in part my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: His manner was not effusive, it seldom was, but he was glad I think to see me.
[SPEAKER_00]: With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to an armchair, through
[SPEAKER_00]: then he stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular, introspective fashion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wedlock suits you, he remarked, I think Watson that you have put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seven, I answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, I should have thought a little more, just a trifle more I fancy Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in practice, again, I observed, you did not tell me that you intended to go into harness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then how do you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: I see it, I deduce it.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do I know that you have been getting yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and careless servant girl?
[SPEAKER_00]: My dear homes, said I, this is too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would certainly have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is true that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as I have changed my clothes, I can't imagine how you deduce it.
[SPEAKER_00]: As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has given her notice.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there, again, I fail to see how you work it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands together.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is simplicity, itself, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: My eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hence,
[SPEAKER_00]: You see my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London Slavey, as to your practice if a gentleman walks into my room smelling of Ioda form, with a black mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge on the right side of his top hat to show where he has secreted his stethoscope.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must be dull indeed if I do not pronounce him to be an active member of the medical profession.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his process of deduction.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I hear you give your reasons, I remarked.
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple, that I could easily do it myself though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you explain your process, and yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: quite so.
[SPEAKER_00]: He answered, lighting a cigarette and throwing himself down into an armchair.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, but you do not observe.
[SPEAKER_00]: The distinction is clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Frequently, how often?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well,
[SPEAKER_00]: than how many are there?
[SPEAKER_00]: How many I don't know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Quite so you have not observed and yet you have seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is just my point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I know that there are 17 steps because I have both seen and observed.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, since you are interested in these little problems and since you are good enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you may be interested in this.
[SPEAKER_00]: He threw over a sheet of thick, pink-tinted note paper which had been lying open upon the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: It came by the last post, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: Read it aloud.
[SPEAKER_00]: The note was undated and without either signature or address.
[SPEAKER_00]: There will call upon you tonight at a quarter to eight o'clock, it said.
[SPEAKER_00]: A gentleman who desires to consult you upon a matter of the very deepest moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your recent services to one of the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may safely be trusted with matters, which are of an importance which can hardly be exaggerated.
[SPEAKER_00]: This account of you we have from all quarters received.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be in your chamber then at that hour and do not take it a miss if you are visit a wear a mask.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is indeed a mystery I remarked.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you imagine that it means?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no data yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.
[SPEAKER_00]: Incensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the note itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you deduce from it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I carefully examined the writing and the paper upon which it was written.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man who wrote it was presumably well to do, I remarked, endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Such paper could not be bought under half a crown of packet.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is peculiarly strong and stiff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peculia, that is the very word, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not an English paper at all, hold it up to the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did so and saw a large E with a small G, a P, and a large G with a small T woven into the texture of the paper.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you make of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Asked Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The name of the maker no doubt, or his monogram rather.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not at all, the G with the small T stands for gazelle shaft, which is the German for company.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a customary contraction like our co. P, of course, stands for Papier.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now for the egg.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us glance at our continental gazetteer.
[SPEAKER_00]: he took down a heavy-brown volume from his shelves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Iglo Eglonitz, here we are Eglrea.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is in a German-speaking country in Bohemia, not far from Calzbad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remarkable as being the scene of the death of Valenstein and for its numerous glass factories and paper mills.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha!
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha, my boy!
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you make of that?
[SPEAKER_00]: His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue triumphant cloud from his cigarette.
[SPEAKER_00]: The paper was made in Bohemia, I said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Precisely, and the man who wrote the note is a German.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you note the peculiar construction of the sentence?
[SPEAKER_00]: This account of you we have from all quarters received.
[SPEAKER_00]: A Frenchman or Russian could not have written that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the German who is so uncurtious to his verbs.
[SPEAKER_00]: It only remains therefore to discover what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and prefers wearing a mask to showing his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here he comes if I'm not mistaken to resolve all our doubts.
[SPEAKER_00]: As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses hooves and grating wheels against the curb,
[SPEAKER_00]: homes whistled.
[SPEAKER_00]: A pair by the sound, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, he continued glancing out of the window, a nice little broar and a pair of beauties, a 150 guinea's a piece.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's money in this case Watson if there is nothing else.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that I had better go homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: not a bit, Dr. Stay where you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am lost without my Boswell, and this promises to be interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be a pity to miss it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're client.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never mind him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I may want your help and so may he.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here he comes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sit down in that armchair, Dr. and give us your best attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: a slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and in the passage paused immediately outside the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there was a loud and authoritative tap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come in, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet, six inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a hercules.
[SPEAKER_00]: His dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked upon as a kin to bad taste.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heavy bands of Astrocan were slashed across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined with flame-colored silk and secured at the neck with a broach which consisted of a single flaming barrel.
[SPEAKER_00]: boots which extended halfway up his calves and which were trimmed at the tops with rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence, which was suggested by his whole appearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: He carried a broad brimmed hat in his hand while he wore across the upper part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black visit mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment for his hand was still raised to it as he entered.
[SPEAKER_00]: From the lower part of the face, he appeared to be a man of strong character, with a thick, hanging lip, and a long straight chin suggestive of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy.
[SPEAKER_00]: You had my note?
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked with a deep harsh voice and a strongly marked German accent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you that I would call.
[SPEAKER_00]: He looked from one to the other of us as if uncertain which to address.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray take a seat," said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my friend and colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me in my cases.
[SPEAKER_00]: whom have I the honor to address?
[SPEAKER_00]: You may address me as the count for cram, a Bohemian nobleman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honor and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most extreme importance,
[SPEAKER_00]: I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me back into my chair.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is both, or none, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may say before this gentleman anything which you may say to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The count shrugged his broad shoulders.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I must begin, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: By binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years, at the end of that time the matter will be of no importance, at present, it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it may have an influence upon European history.
[SPEAKER_00]: I promise, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will excuse this mask, continue to our strange visitor.
[SPEAKER_00]: The August person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have just called myself is not exactly my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was aware of it, said Holmes, drily.
[SPEAKER_00]: The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense scandal, and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Europe.
[SPEAKER_00]: To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great house of Ormstein hereditary kings of Bohemia.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was also aware of that, murmured homes, settling himself down in his armchair and closing his eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his gigantic client.
[SPEAKER_00]: If your majesty would condescend to stage your case who remarked, I should be better able to advise you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in uncontrollable agitation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, with a gesture of desperation, he tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are right, he cried.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am the king.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why should I attempt to conceal it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why, indeed, murmured homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your majesty had not spoken before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottstrike, Sigismund von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Kassel Felstein, and hereditary king of Bohemia.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you can understand, said our strange visitor sitting down once more, and passing his hand over his high-white forehead.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in my own person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have come in cognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then prey consult, said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more.
[SPEAKER_00]: The facts are briefly these.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some five years ago during a lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known adventurous Irene Adler.
[SPEAKER_00]: The name is no doubt familiar to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kindly look her up in my index doctor, murmured homes without opening his eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: For many years, he had adopted a system of docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not at once furnish information.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this case, I found her biography sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi, and that of a staff commander who had written a monograph upon the deep sea fishes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Born in New Jersey in the year 1858, Contralto, Humb, La Scala, Humb, Prima Donna Imperial Opera of Warsaw.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, retired from operatic stage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha, living in London.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quite so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your majesty, as I understand, became entangled with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and is now desirous of getting those letters back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was there a secret marriage?
[SPEAKER_00]: None.
[SPEAKER_00]: No legal papers or certificates?
[SPEAKER_00]: None.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I failed to follow your majesty.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this young person should produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is she to prove their authenticity?
[SPEAKER_00]: there is the writing, poo, poo, forgery, my private note paper, stolen, my own seal, imitated,
[SPEAKER_00]: We were both in the photograph.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh dear, that is very bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your Majesty has indeed committed an indiscretion.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was mad, insane.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have compromised yourself seriously.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was only crowned Prince then, I was young, I am but 30 now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It must be recovered.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have tried and failed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your majesty must pay, it must be bought.
[SPEAKER_00]: She will not sell.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stolen them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The five attempts have been made, twice burglars in my pay ransacked her house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled, twice she has been way laid, there has been no result.
[SPEAKER_00]: No sign of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely none.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes laughed.
[SPEAKER_00]: But a very serious one to me returned the King reproachfully.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very indeed, and what does she propose to do with the photograph?
[SPEAKER_00]: To ruin me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm about to be married.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: To Clotilde Lothman von Sachs Meningen, second daughter of the King of Scandinavia, you may know the strict principles of her family.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is herself the very soul of delicacy, a shadow of a doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Irene Adler
[SPEAKER_00]: You do not know her, but she has a soul of steel.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather than I should marry another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not go, none.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are sure that she has not sent it yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the betrothal was publicly proclaimed.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will be next Monday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, then we have three days yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Said homes with a yorn.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is very fortunate.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I have one or two matters of importance to look into just at present, Your Majesty will of course stay in London for the present.
[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly,
[SPEAKER_00]: You will find me at the Langem under the name of the Count von Kram.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress.
[SPEAKER_00]: Preduce, I shall be all anxiety.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then as to money, you have cart blanche.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom to have that photograph.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for present expenses, the king took a heavy shamwara leather bag from under his cloak and laid it on the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are 300 pounds in gold and 700 in notes, he said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his notebook and handed it to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Mademoiselle's address he asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is Brian E. Lodge, serpentine avenue, sent John's wood?
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes took a note of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: One other question said he, was the photographic cabinet?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, good night to your majesty, and I trust that we shall soon have some good news for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And good night Watson, he added, as the wheels of the Royal Broam rolled down the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you will be good enough to call tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock, I should like to chat this little matter over with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Part 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: At three o'clock precisely, I was at Baker Street, but homes had not yet returned.
[SPEAKER_00]: The landlady informed me that he had left the house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I sat down beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, however long he might be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was already deeply interested in his inquiry for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and strange features which were associated with the two crimes which I have already recorded still.
[SPEAKER_00]: The nature of the case and the exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own.
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of a situation, and his keen incisive reasoning which made it a pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the quick subtle methods by which he disentangled the most inextricable mysteries.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a customed desire to his invariable success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to enter into my head.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was close upon four before the door opened, and a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side whiskered with an inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: A custom design was to my friends' amazing powers in the use of disguises.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to look three times before I was certain that it was indeed he.
[SPEAKER_00]: With a nod, he vanished into the bedroom, when she emerged in five minutes tweed suited and respectable as of old.
[SPEAKER_00]: Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, really, he cried, and then he choked and laughed again until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless in the chair.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's quite too funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure you could never guess how I employed my morning or what I ended by doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose that you have been watching the habits and perhaps the house of Miss Irene Adler.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quite so.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the sequel was rather unusual.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will tell you, however, I left the house a little after eight o'clock this morning in the character of a groom out of work.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a wonderful sympathy and free-masonry among horsey men.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be one of them and you will know all that there is to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I soon found Briny Lodge.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a Beju Villa with a garden at the back but built out in front right up to the road.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: chub, lock to the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Large sitting room on the right side well furnished with long windows almost to the floor, and those preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open.
[SPEAKER_00]: Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window could be reached from the top of the coachhouse.
[SPEAKER_00]: I walked round it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without noting anything else of interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there was amuse in a lane, which runs down by one wall of the garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, and received in exchange topence a glass of half-and-half-two fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire about Miss Adler.
[SPEAKER_00]: To say nothing of half-and-us-an-other people in the neighborhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but whose biographies I was compelled to listen to.
[SPEAKER_00]: and what have I read Adela?
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh she has turned all the men's heads down in that part.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is the daintyous thing under a bonnet on this planet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So say the serpentine muse.
[SPEAKER_00]: To a man, she lives quietly, sings at concerts, drives out at five every day and returns at seven sharp for dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seldom
[SPEAKER_00]: has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is dark, handsome, and dashing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never calls less than once a day and often twice.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton of the Inner Temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: See the advantages of a cab man as a confident.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are driven him home a dozen times from serpentine muse and knew all about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up and down near Briany Lodge once more, and to think over my plan of campaign.
[SPEAKER_00]: This god-free norton was evidently an important factor in the matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a lawyer.
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounded ominous.
[SPEAKER_00]: What was the relation between them and what the object of his repeated visits?
[SPEAKER_00]: If the former she had probably transferred the photograph to his keeping.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the latter, it was less likely.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the issue of this question, dependent whether I should continue my work at Breyony Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the temple.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my inquiry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to let you see my little difficulties if you are to understand the situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm following you closely, I answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a handsome cab drove up to Briany Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a remarkably handsome man, dark, aqueline and moustacheed, evidently the man of whom I had heard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He appeared to be in a great hurry, shouted to the cabin to wait, and brushed past the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly at home.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in the house about half an hour and I could catch glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting room, pacing up and down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of her I could see nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Presently he emerged looking even more flurry than before, as he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from his pocket and looked at it earnestly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Drive like the devil, he shouted.
[SPEAKER_00]: First to gross and hankies in Regents Street, and then to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road, half a guinea if you do it in 20 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Away they went and I was just wondering whether I should not do well to follow them.
[SPEAKER_00]: When up the lane came a neat little lando, the coachman with his coat only half buttoned and his tie under his ear.
[SPEAKER_00]: While all the tags of his harness were sticking out of the buckles,
[SPEAKER_00]: It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall door and into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Church of St. Monica, John, she cried and half a sovereign if you reach it in 20 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was quite too good to lose Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just balancing whether I should run for it or whether I should perch behind her landout when a cab came through the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: The driver looked twice at such a shabby fair but I jumped in before he could object.
[SPEAKER_00]: The church of St. Monica said, I, and half a sovereign if you reach it in 20 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was 25 minutes to 12, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind.
[SPEAKER_00]: my cabbie drove fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I ever drove fast, but the others were there before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The cab and the land are with their steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived.
[SPEAKER_00]: I paid the man and hurried into the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was not a soul there saved the two whom I had followed and a surplus clergyman who seemed to be expostulating with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were all three standing in a knot in front of the altar.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lounged up the side aisle like any other idler who was dropped into a church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank God he cried, you'll do come come.
[SPEAKER_00]: What then, I asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come man, come only three minutes or it won't be legal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was half dragged up to the altar and before I knew where I was, I found myself mumbling responses, which were whispered in my ear, and vouching for things of which I knew nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And generally assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, Spinster, to Godfrey Norton Bachelor.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was all done in an instant, and there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems that there had been some infamality about their license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them without a witness of some sort,
[SPEAKER_00]: and that my lucky appearance saved the bridegroom from having to Sally out into the streets in search of a best man.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bride gave me a sovereign and I mean to wear it on my watch chain in memory of the occasion.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a very unexpected turn of affairs, and what then?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looked as if the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate very prompt and energetic measures on my part.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the church door, however, they separated he driving back to the temple and she to her own house.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shall drive out in the park at five as usual.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, as she left him, I heard no more.
[SPEAKER_00]: They drove away in different directions, and I went off to make my own arrangements.
[SPEAKER_00]: which are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some cold beef and a glass of beer, he answered ringing the bell.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to be busier still this evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, Doctor, I shall want your cooperation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shall be delighted.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't mind breaking the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nor running a chance of arrest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not in a good cause.
[SPEAKER_00]: O the cause is excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I am your man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was sure that I might rely on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what is it you wish?
[SPEAKER_00]: When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray, I will make it clear to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he said, as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that our land lady had provided, I must discuss it while I eat for I have not much time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is nearly five now.
[SPEAKER_00]: In two hours, we must be on the scene of action.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miss Irene, or Madam, rather, returns from her drive at seven.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must be at Breyani lodge to meet her.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what then?
[SPEAKER_00]: You must leave that to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have already arranged what is to occur.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is only one point on which I must insist.
[SPEAKER_00]: You must not interfere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come what may.
[SPEAKER_00]: You understand?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am to be neutral.
[SPEAKER_00]: To do nothing whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: There will probably be some small unpleasantness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not join in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will end in my being conveyed into the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Four or five minutes afterwards, the sitting room window will open.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are to station yourself close to that open window.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are to watch me for I will be visible to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I raise my hand so,
[SPEAKER_00]: You will throw into the room what I give you to throw and will at the same time raise the cry of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: You quite follow me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Entirely.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is nothing very formidable.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said, taking a long cigar-shaped roll from his pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is an ordinary plumber's smoke rocket fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting.
[SPEAKER_00]: your task is confined to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you raise your cry of fire, it will be taken up by quite a number of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may then walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that I have made myself clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am to remain neutral to get near the window to watch you, and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: precisely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you may entirely rely on me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think perhaps it is almost time that I prepare for the new role I have to play.
[SPEAKER_00]: He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in the character of an amiable and simple-minded non-conformist clergyman.
[SPEAKER_00]: his broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white tie, his sympathetic smile and general look of peering and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have equaled.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume.
[SPEAKER_00]: His expression, his manner, his very soul, seemed to vary with every fresh part that he assumed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost in acute reasoner when he became a specialist in crime.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in serpentine avenue.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was already dusk, and the lamps were just being lighted as we paced up and down in front
[SPEAKER_00]: But the house was just such as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the contrary for a small street and a quiet neighbourhood it was remarkably animated.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a group of shabby-dressed men smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors grinder with his wheel, two guardsmen who are flirting with a nurse girl and several well-dressed young men who are lounging up and down with cigars in their mouths.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, remarked homes as we pace too and throw in front of the house, this marriage rather simplifies matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: The photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now.
[SPEAKER_00]: The chances are that she would be as a verse to it's being seen by Mr. Godfrey Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his princess.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the question is, where are we to find the photograph?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where indeed?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is cabinet size.
[SPEAKER_00]: Too large for easy concealment about a woman's dress.
[SPEAKER_00]: She knows that the king is capable of having her way laid and searched.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two attempts of the sort have already been made.
[SPEAKER_00]: We may take it then that she does not carry it about with her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where then?
[SPEAKER_00]: Her banker or her lawyer.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is that double possibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I am inclined to think neither.
[SPEAKER_00]: Women are naturally secretive.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they like to do their own secreting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why should she hand it over to anyone else?
[SPEAKER_00]: She could trust her own guardianship but she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be brought to bear upon a business man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides, remember that she had resolved to use it within a few days, it must be where she can lay her hands upon it, it must be in her own house.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it has twice been burgled.
[SPEAKER_00]: sure they did not know how to look.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how will you look?
[SPEAKER_00]: I will not look.
[SPEAKER_00]: What then?
[SPEAKER_00]: I will get her to show me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But she will refuse.
[SPEAKER_00]: but I hear the rumble of wheels.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is her carriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, carry out my orders to the letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: As you spoke, the gleam of the sidelights of a carriage came round the curve of the Avenue.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a smart little lander which rattled up to the door of Brian E. Lodge.
[SPEAKER_00]: As it pulled up, one of the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another loafer who had rushed up with the same intention.
[SPEAKER_00]: A fierce quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who took sides with one of the lounges and by the scissors grinder, who was equally hot upon the other side.
[SPEAKER_00]: A blow was struck.
[SPEAKER_00]: and in an instant the lady who had stepped from her carriage was the center of a little knot of flushed and struggling men who struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes dashed into the crowd to protect the lady, but just as he reached her, he gave a cry, and dropped to the ground with the blood running freely down his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: At his fall, the guardsman took to their heels in one direction and the lounges in the other, while a number of better dressed people who had watched the scuffle without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady into attend to the injured man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Irene Adler, as I will still call her, had hurried up the steps, but she stood at the top with her superb figure, outlined against the lights of the hall, looking back into the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: is the poor gentleman much hurt, she asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is dead, cried several voices.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, there's life in him, shouted another.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he'll be gone before you can get him to hospital.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a brave fellow, said a woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would have had the ladies' purse and watch if it hadn't been for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were a gang, and a rough one too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, he's breathing now.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can't lie in the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: May we bring him in, ma'am?
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely, bring him into the sitting room.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a comfortable sofa this way, please.
[SPEAKER_00]: Slowly and solemnly, he was born into Brian Lee Lodge and laid out in the principal room, while I still observe the proceedings from my post by the window.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lamps had been lit, but the blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see homes as he lay upon the couch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do not know whether he was seized with compunction at that moment for the party was playing, but I know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was conspiring, or the grace and kindness with which he waited upon the injured man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet it would be the blackest treachery to homes to draw back now from the part which he had entrusted to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hardened my heart and took the smoke rocket from under my ulster.
[SPEAKER_00]: After all I thought, we are not injuring her.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are but preventing her from injuring another.
[SPEAKER_00]: a maid rushed across and threw open the window.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the same instant I saw him raise his hand, and at the signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: The word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of spectators, well dressed and ill, gentlemen, oscillars and servant maids, joined in a general shriek of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: I caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice of homes from within, assuring them that it was a false alarm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Slipping through the shouting crowd, I made my way to the corner of the street, and in 10 minutes was rejoice to find my friends arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar.
[SPEAKER_00]: He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we had turned down one of the
[SPEAKER_00]: You did it very nicely, Doctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: He remarked, nothing could have been better.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the photograph.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know where it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how did you find out?
[SPEAKER_00]: She showed me as I told you she would.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am still in the dark.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing.
[SPEAKER_00]: The matter was perfectly simple, you, of course, saw that everyone in the street was an accomplice.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were all engaged for the evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guessed as much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the palm of my hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is an old trick, that also I could fathom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they carried me in, she was bound to have me in.
[SPEAKER_00]: What else could she do?
[SPEAKER_00]: And into her sitting room, which was the very room which I suspected.
[SPEAKER_00]: It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was determined to see which.
[SPEAKER_00]: They laid me on a couch, I motioned for air, they were compelled to open the window and you had your chance.
[SPEAKER_00]: How did that help you?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was all important.
[SPEAKER_00]: When a woman thinks that her house is on fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have more than once taken advantage of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the case of the Darlington Substitution scandal, it was a views to me, and also in the arms with castle business.
[SPEAKER_00]: a married woman grabs at her baby.
[SPEAKER_00]: An unmarried one reaches for her jewel box.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it was clear to me that our lady of today had nothing in the house more precious to her than what we are in quest of.
[SPEAKER_00]: She would rush to secure it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The alarm of fire was admirably done.
[SPEAKER_00]: The smoke and shouting were enough to shake nerves of steel.
[SPEAKER_00]: She responded beautifully.
[SPEAKER_00]: The photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the right Belpool.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was there in an instant, and I caught a glimpse of it as she half drew it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I cried out that it was a false alarm she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed from the room and I have not seen her since.
[SPEAKER_00]: I rose and making my excuses escaped from the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hesitated whether to attempt to secure the photograph at once but the coachman had come in.
[SPEAKER_00]: and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to wait, a little over precipitance may ruin all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, I asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our quest is practically finished.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shall call with the King tomorrow, and with you, if you care to come with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be shown into the sitting room to wait for the lady, but it is probable that when she comes,
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be a satisfaction to his majesty to regain it with his own hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when will you call?
[SPEAKER_00]: At eight in the morning, she will not be up so that we shall have a clear field.
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides, we must be prompt.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this marriage may mean a complete change in her life and habits.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must wire to the king without delay.
[SPEAKER_00]: we had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said, Good night, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had hurried by.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard that voice before, said Holmes staring down the dimly lit street,
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I wonder who the deuce that could have been.
[SPEAKER_00]: Part 3 I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed into the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have really got it!
[SPEAKER_00]: He cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: not yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you have hopes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have hopes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then come.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am all in patience to be gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must have a cab.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, my bro am is waiting.
[SPEAKER_00]: We descended and started off once more for Brian E. Lodge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Irene Adler is married, remarked Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Married.
[SPEAKER_00]: When?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to whom?
[SPEAKER_00]: To an English lawyer named Norton,
[SPEAKER_00]: but she could not love him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am in hopes that she does, and why in hopes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because it would spare your majesty all fear of future annoyance, if the lady loves her husband, she does not love your majesty.
[SPEAKER_00]: If she does not love your majesty, there is no reason why she should interfere with your majesty's plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is true, and yet, well, I wish he had been of my own station what a queen she would have made.
[SPEAKER_00]: He relapsed into a moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in serpentine avenue.
[SPEAKER_00]: The door of briny lodge was open and an elderly woman stood upon the steps.
[SPEAKER_00]: She watched us with a sadonic eye as we stepped from the broom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am Mr. Holmes, answered my companion, looking at her with a questioning and rather startled gaze.
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed my mistress told me that you were likely to call.
[SPEAKER_00]: She left this morning with her husband by the five-fifteen train from chairing cross for the continent.
[SPEAKER_00]: What?
[SPEAKER_00]: Sherlock Holmes staggered back white with chagrin and surprise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you mean that she
[SPEAKER_00]: never to return.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the papers asked the king horsely, all is lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: We shall see.
[SPEAKER_00]: He pushed past the servant and rushed into the drawing room, followed by the king and myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: The furniture was scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before her flight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes rushed at the bellpool, tore back a small sliding shutter, and plunging in his hand, pulled out a photograph and a letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The photograph was of Irene Adler herself in evening dress.
[SPEAKER_00]: my friend tore it open, and we all three read it together.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was dated at midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, you really did it very well.
[SPEAKER_00]: You took me in completely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until after the alarm of fire I had not a suspicion.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself I began to think, I had been warned
[SPEAKER_00]: I had been told that if the king employed an agent it would certainly be you, and your address had been given me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet with all this you made me reveal what you wanted to know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even after I became suspicious I found it hard to think evil of such a dear kind old clergyman.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, I have been trained as an actress myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mail cost you is nothing new to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I often take advantage of the freedom which it gives.
[SPEAKER_00]: I sent John the Coachman to watch you round upstairs, got into my walking clothes as I call them, and came down just as you departed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I followed you to your door and so made sure that I was really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I, rather imprudently wished you good night and started for the temple to see my husband,
[SPEAKER_00]: We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by so formidable and antagonist, so you will find the nest empty when you call tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: As to the photograph your client may rest in peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love and am loved by a better man than he.
[SPEAKER_00]: The king may do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly wronged.
[SPEAKER_00]: I keep it only to safeguard myself and to preserve a weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might take in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: I leave a photograph which he might care to possess and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very truly yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Irene Norton, Nay, Adler
[SPEAKER_00]: What a woman!
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, what a woman!
[SPEAKER_00]: cried the King of Bohemia when we had all three read this epistle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did I not tell you how quick and resolute she was?
[SPEAKER_00]: Would she not have made an admirable queen?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?
[SPEAKER_00]: From what I have seen of the lady, she seems indeed to be on a very different level to your majesty, said Holmes coldly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business to a more successful conclusion.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the contrary my dear sir, cried the king, nothing could be more successful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that her word is invalid.
[SPEAKER_00]: The photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am glad to hear your Majesty say so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray tell me in what way I can reward you.
[SPEAKER_00]: This ring, he slipped an emerald snake ring from his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your majesty has something which I should value even more highly, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have but to name it.
[SPEAKER_00]: the king stared at him in amazement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Irene's photograph, he cried, certainly, if you wish it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank your majesty, then there is no more to be done in the matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have the honour to wish you a very good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: He bowed, and turning away without observing the hand which the king had stretched
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were beaten by a woman's wit.
[SPEAKER_00]: He used to make Mary over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of, The Woman,
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: you
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.