Приключения Шерлока Холмса / The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Merryweather, the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will be the man on whom you wish to lay your hands.

“John Clay, the murderer, thief, and forger. He’s a young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his profession, one of the most dangerous in London. He’s a remarkable man. His grandfather was a duke, and he himself has been to Eton[17 - Eton – Р?тон, привилегированная школа для мальчиков] and Oxford. His brain is as good as his fingers.

I’ve been on his track for years and have never had any evidence against him yet.”

“I’ve met Mr. John Clay once or twice, and I agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is past ten, however, and it is time to start.”

We drove through a labyrinth of streets until we found ourselves in Farrington Street.

“We are close there now,” my friend remarked. “This fellow Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the matter.

I wished to have Jones with us also. He is not a bad fellow, though an absolute fool in his profession, but he is as brave as a bulldog.”

We had reached the same crowded street in which we had been in the morning. Mr. Merryweather opened a side door for us. We saw a small corridor, which ended in a very massive iron gate. This also was opened, and we went downstairs to another iron gate. Mr. Merryweather showed us down a dark corridor to a third door, and into a huge cellar with massive boxes.

“You are not very vulnerable from above,” Holmes remarked as he looked about him.

“Nor from below,” said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick on the floor. “Why, it sounds quite hollow!” he remarked, looking up in surprise.

“I must ask you to be a little more quiet!” said Holmes. “Would you sit down on one of those boxes, and be quiet?”

Mr. Merryweather sat down on a box, while Holmes fell on his knees on the floor and, with a lens, began to examine it.

A few moments later he sprang to his feet again and put his lens in his pocket.

“We have at least an hour,” he remarked, “for they can hardly do anything until the pawnbroker is in bed. Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at present, Doctor, in the cellar of the City branch of one of the biggest London banks. Mr.