t name is Sophy. X 2473.' That
was in all the dailies. No answer."

"How about the Greek Legation?"

"I have inquired. They know nothing."

"A wire to the head of the Athens police, then?"

"Sherlock has all the energy of the family," said Mycroft, turning to
me. "Well, you take the case up by all means, and let me know if you do
any good."

"Certainly," answered my friend, rising from his chair. "I'll let you
know, and Mr. Melas also. In the meantime, Mr. Melas, I should certainly
be on my guard, if I were you, for of course they must know through
these advertisements that you have betrayed them."

As we walked home together, Holmes stopped at a telegraph office and
sent off several wires.

"You see, Watson," he remarked, "our evening has been by no means
wasted. Some of my most interesting cases have come to me in this way
through Mycroft. The problem which we have just listened to, although
it can admit of but one explanation, has still some distinguishing
features."

"You have hopes of solving it?"

"Well, knowing as much as we do, it will be singular indeed if we fail
to discover the rest. You must yourself have formed some theory which
will explain the facts to which we have listened."

"In a vague way, yes."

"What was your idea, then?"

"It seemed to me to be obvious that this Greek girl had been carried off
by the young Englishman named Harold Latimer."

"Carried off from where?"

"Athens, perhaps."

Sherlock Holmes shook his head. "This young man could not talk a word of
Greek. The lady could talk English fairly well. Inference--that she had
been in England some little time, but he had not been in Greece."

"Well, then, we will presume that she had come on a visit to England,
and that this Harold had persuaded her to fly with him."

"That is more probable."

"Then the brother--for that, I fancy, must be the relationship--comes
over from Greece to interfere. He imprudently puts himself into the
power of the young man and his older associate. They seize him and use
violence towards him in order to make him sign some papers to make over
the girl's fortune--of which he may be trustee--to them. This he refuses
to do. In order to negotiate with him they have to get an interpreter,
and they pitch upon this Mr. Melas, having used some other one before.
The girl is not told of the arrival of her brother, and finds it out by
the merest accident."

"Excellent, Watson!" cried Holmes. "I really fa