I would have gone
straight up and told him so, only I thought it was but fair to you to
take your opinion first. But I'm at the end of my patience, and when
it comes to knocking my old man about--"

"Knocking Mr. Warren about?"

"Using him roughly, anyway."

"But who used him roughly?"

"Ah! that's what we want to know! It was this morning, sir. Mr.
Warren is a timekeeper at Morton and Waylight's, in Tottenham Court
Road. He has to be out of the house before seven. Well, this morning
he had not gone ten paces down the road when two men came up behind
him, threw a coat over his head, and bundled him into a cab that was
beside the curb. They drove him an hour, and then opened the door and
shot him out. He lay in the roadway so shaken in his wits that he
never saw what became of the cab. When he picked himself up he found he
was on Hampstead Heath; so he took a bus home, and there he lies now on
his sofa, while I came straight round to tell you what had happened."

"Most interesting," said Holmes. "Did he observe the appearance of
these men--did he hear them talk?"

"No; he is clean dazed. He just knows that he was lifted up as if by
magic and dropped as if by magic. Two a least were in it, and maybe
three."

"And you connect this attack with your lodger?"

"Well, we've lived there fifteen years and no such happenings ever came
before. I've had enough of him. Money's not everything. I'll have him
out of my house before the day is done."

"Wait a bit, Mrs. Warren. Do nothing rash. I begin to think that this
affair may be very much more important than appeared at first sight.
It is clear now that some danger is threatening your lodger. It is
equally clear that his enemies, lying in wait for him near your door,
mistook your husband for him in the foggy morning light. On
discovering their mistake they released him. What they would have done
had it not been a mistake, we can only conjecture."

"Well, what am I to do, Mr. Holmes?"

"I have a great fancy to see this lodger of yours, Mrs. Warren."

"I don't see how that is to be managed, unless you break in the door.
I always hear him unlock it as I go down the stair after I leave the
tray."

"He has to take the tray in. Surely we could conceal ourselves and see
him do it."

The landlady thought for a moment.

"Well, sir, there's the box-room opposite. I could arrange a
looking-glass, maybe, and if you were behind the door--"

"Excellent!" said