stake are
colossal. Should I bring it to a successful conclusion it will certainly
represent the crowning glory of my career. Ah, here is my latest from
the front!" He glanced hurriedly at the note which had been handed in.
"Halloa! Lestrade seems to have observed something of interest. Put on
your hat, Watson, and we will stroll down together to Westminster."

It was my first visit to the scene of the crime--a high, dingy,
narrow-chested house, prim, formal, and solid, like the century which
gave it birth. Lestrade's bulldog features gazed out at us from the
front window, and he greeted us warmly when a big constable had opened
the door and let us in. The room into which we were shown was that in
which the crime had been committed, but no trace of it now remained,
save an ugly, irregular stain upon the carpet. This carpet was a small
square drugget in the centre of the room, surrounded by a broad expanse
of beautiful, old-fashioned wood-flooring in square blocks highly
polished. Over the fireplace was a magnificent trophy of weapons, one of
which had been used on that tragic night. In the window was a sumptuous
writing-desk, and every detail of the apartment, the pictures, the rugs,
and the hangings, all pointed to a taste which was luxurious to the
verge of effeminacy.

"Seen the Paris news?" asked Lestrade.

Holmes nodded.

"Our French friends seem to have touched the spot this time. No doubt
it's just as they say. She knocked at the door--surprise visit, I
guess, for he kept his life in water-tight compartments. He let her
in--couldn't keep her in the street. She told him how she had traced
him, reproached him, one thing led to another, and then with that dagger
so handy the end soon came. It wasn't all done in an instant, though,
for these chairs were all swept over yonder, and he had one in his hand
as if he had tried to hold her off with it. We've got it all clear as if
we had seen it."

Holmes raised his eyebrows.

"And yet you have sent for me?"

"Ah, yes, that's another matter--a mere trifle, but the sort of thing
you take an interest in--queer, you know, and what you might call
freakish. It has nothing to do with the main fact--can't have, on the
face of it."

"What is it, then?"

"Well, you know, after a crime of this sort we are very careful to keep
things in their position. Nothing has been moved. Officer in charge here
day and night. This morning, as the man was buried and the investigation
o