ls, and familiarize
them with crime, that they should forget what they had been; and that even
those who should have loved them best would blush to see what they were.
You began your work well, for you had a stern, savage master over
you--Michael Rust. Thus much,' said he, 'I know; but I must know more. You
must identify the children as the same first delivered to you by Rust. You
must disclose the names of the persons with whom they lived in the
country. You must also give me such information as will enable us to
fasten this crime on Rust. Another person could have proved all this--the
man Blossom; but you know he is dead.'

He paused, for Mrs. Blossom's face grew deadly pale as he spoke. It was
momentary, however; and might have passed away entirely, had not a strange
suspicion fastened itself on his mind. He added in a slow tone: 'What
ailed him, _you_ know best.'

Mrs. Blossom's thin lips grew perfectly white; and moved as if she were
attempting to speak.

'Will you give me the information I require? or will you accept the
alternative?' said Holmes, still keeping his eye upon her.

'Go on; what do you want?' demanded she, in a quick husky voice.

'You are acquainted with Michael Rust?'

'I am,' replied she, in the same quick, nervous manner.

'How did you first become acquainted with him?'

'You know all that,' was the abrupt reply. 'Why should I go over it again?
It's all true, as you said it.'

Holmes paused to make a note of it, and then asked:

'What is the name of the person, in the country, who took charge of the
children?'

'I don't know,' replied the woman. 'Michael Rust sent a man for them, who
took them off.'

'Who was this man?'

'I don't know; I never saw him. Mr. Blossom gave the children to him, and
never told me his name.'

'Good,' said Holmes, in his short, abrupt manner: 'Where are these
children now?'

'One's at _his_ house,' replied she, pointing to Harson. 'The other, by
this time, is with a man named Grosket. He's been arter him, and I suppose
has got him by this time.'

'Enoch Grosket?' inquired Holmes.

The woman nodded. 'I told him where he'd find him. He went straight off to
fetch him.'

'Will you swear that they are the same children brought to you four years
since?' said Holmes, pausing in his writing, and running his eye over the
notes which he had made. 'Do you know them to be the same?'

'The man said so, who brought 'em back at the end of the year. That's all