THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
by
Arthur Conan Doyle

Silver Blaze

Chapter 15

“He has the horse, then?”

“He has the horse, then?”

“He tried
to bluster out of it,
but I described to him
so exactly
what his actions had been
upon that morning
that he is convinced
that I was watching him.

Of course
you observed
the peculiarly square toes
in the impressions,
and that his own boots
exactly corresponded
to them.

Again, of course
no subordinate
would have dared
to do such a thing.

I described to him how,
when according
to his custom
he was the first down,
he perceived a strange horse
wandering over the moor.

How he went out to it,
and his astonishment
at recognizing,
from the white forehead
which has given
the favorite its name,
that chance had put
in his power
the only horse
which could beat
the one upon which
he had put his money.

Then I described
how his first impulse
had been
to lead him back
to King’s Pyland,
and how the devil
had shown him
how he could
hide the horse
until the race was over,
and how he had
led it back
and concealed it
at Mapleton.

When I told him
every detail
he gave it up
and thought only
of saving his own skin.”

“But his stables
had been searched?”

“Oh, an old horse-faker
like him
has many a dodge.”

“But are you not afraid
to leave the horse
in his power now,
since he has every interest
in injuring it?”

“My dear fellow,
he will guard it
as the apple of his eye.

He knows that
his only hope of mercy
is to produce it safe.”

“Colonel Ross
did not impress me
as a man
who would be likely
to show much mercy
in any case.”

“The matter
does not rest
with Colonel Ross.

I follow
my own methods,
and tell as much
or as little
as I choose.

That is the advantage
of being unofficial.
I don’t know
whether you observed it,
Watson, but
the Colonel’s manner
has been just
a trifle cavalier
to me.

I am inclined now
to have a little amusement
at his expense.

Say nothing to him
about the horse.”

“Certainly not without
your permission.”

The  end  of  Chapter 15