"I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we mayprove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock thesnow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressingMiss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?"
"Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up."
"You heard nothing yourself last night?"
"Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heardthat, and I came down."
"You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did youfasten all the windows?"
"Yes."
"Were they all fastened this morning?"
"Yes."
"You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarkedto your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?"
"Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, andwho may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet."
"I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell hersweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery."
"But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried thebanker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur withthe coronet in his hands?"
"Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About thisgirl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, Ipresume?"
"Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night Imet her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom."
"Do you know him?"
"Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round.His name is Francis Prosper."
"He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is tosay, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?"
"Yes, he did."
"And he is a man with a wooden leg?"
Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressiveblack eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do youknow that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile inHolmes' thin, eager face.
"I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shallprobably wish to go over the outside of the house again. PerhapsI had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up."
He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only atthe large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane.This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sillwith his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs,"said he at last.
The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished littlechamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror.Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock.
"Which key was used to open it?" he asked.
"That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of thelumber-room."
"Have you it here?"
"That is it on the dressing-table."
Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau.
"It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it didnot wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We musthave a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diademhe laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of thejeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that Ihave ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge,where a corner holding three gems had been torn away.
"Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner whichcorresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might Ibeg that you will break it off."