2 Just sit down and tell us your story,' said Holmes kindly.
'My name is Helen Stoner,' she began, 'and I live with my stepfather, Dr Grimesby Roylott, near a village in the country. His family was once very rich, but they had no money when my stepfather was born. So he studied to be a doctor, and went out to India. He met and married my mother there, when my sister Julia and I were very young. Our father was dead, you see.'
'Your mother had some money, perhaps?' asked Sherlock Holmes.
'Oh yes, mother had a lot of money, so my stepfather wasn't poor any more.'
'Tell me more about him, Miss Stoner,' said Holmes.
'Well, he's a violent man. In India he once got angry with his Indian servant and killed him! He had to go to prison because of that, and then we all came back to England. Mother died in an accident eight years ago. So my stepfather got all her money, but if Julia or I marry, he must pay us £250 every year.'
'And now you live with him in the country,' said Holmes.
'Yes, but he stays at home and never sees anybody, Mr Holmes!' answered Helen Stoner. 'He's more and more violent now, and sometimes has fights with the people from the village. Everybody's afraid of him now, and they run away when they see him. And they're also afraid of his Indian wild animals which