The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 04Stevenson, Robert Louis
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The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 04
Stevenson, Robert Louis
English literature -- 19th century; Short stories
Decisive actions are often taken in a moment and without any conscious
deliverance from the rational parts of man. So it was now with Mr.
Rolles. He glanced hurriedly round; beheld, like Mr. Raeburn before him,
nothing but the sunlit flower-garden, the tall tree-tops, and the house
with blinded windows; and in a trice he had shut the case, thrust it
into his pocket, and was hastening to his study with the speed of guilt.
The Reverend Simon Rolles had stolen the Rajah's Diamond.
Early in the afternoon the police arrived with Harry Hartley. The
nurseryman, who was beside himself with terror, readily discovered his
hoard; and the jewels were identified and inventoried in the presence of
the secretary. As for Mr. Rolles, he showed himself in a most obliging
temper, communicated what he knew with freedom, and professed regret
that he could do no more to help the officers in their duty.
"Still," he added, "I suppose your business is nearly at an end."
"By no means," replied the man from Scotland Yard; and he narrated the
second robbery of which Harry had been the immediate victim, and gave
the young clergyman a description of the more important jewels that were
still not found, dilating particularly on the Rajah's Diamond.
"It must be worth a fortune," observed Mr. Rolles.
"Ten fortunes--twenty fortunes," cried the officer.
"The more it is worth," remarked Simon shrewdly, "the more difficult it
must be to sell. Such a thing has a physiognomy not to be disguised, and
I should fancy a man might as easily negotiate St. Paul's Cathedral."
"Oh, truly!" said the officer; "but if the thief be a man of any
intelligence, he will cut it into three or four, and there will be still
enough to make him rich."
"Thank you," said the clergyman. "You cannot imagine how much your
conversation interests me."
Whereupon the functionary admitted that they knew many strange things in
his profession, and immediately after took his leave.
Mr. Rolles regained his apartment. It seemed smaller and barer than
usual; the materials for his great work had never presented so little
interest; and he looked upon his library with the eye of scorn. He took
down, volume by volume, several Fathers of the Church, and glanced them
through; but they contained nothing to his purpose.
"These old gentlemen," thought he, "are no doubt very valuable writers,
but they seem to me conspicuously ignorant of life. Here am I, with
learning enough to be a Bishop, and I positively do not know how to
dispose of a stolen diamond. I glean a hint from a common policeman,
and, with all my folios, I cannot so much as put it into execution. This
inspires me with very low ideas of University training."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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