“Yes, sir, I have already read the account in the evening papers.
Mr. Horace Harker is a customer of ours. We supplied him withthe bust some months ago. We ordered three busts of that sortfrom Gelder & Co., of Stepney. They are all sold now. To whom?
Oh, I daresay by consulting our sales book we could very easilytell you. Yes, we have the entries here. One to Mr. Harker yousee, and one to Mr. Josiah Brown, of Laburnum Lodge, LaburnumVale, Chiswick, and one to Mr. Sandeford, of Lower Grove Road,Reading. No, I have never seen this face which you show me inthe photograph. You would hardly forget it, would you, sir, forI’ve seldom seen an uglier. Have we any Italians on the staff? Yes,sir, we have several among our workpeople and cleaners. I daresaythey might get a peep at that sales book if they wanted to. Thereno particular reason for keeping a watch upon that book. Well,well, it’s a very strange business, and I hope that you will let meknow if anything comes of your inquiries.”
Holmes had taken several notes during Mr. Harding’s evidence,and I could see that he was thoroughly satisfied by the turn whichaffairs were taking. He made no remark, however, save that, unlesswe hurried, we should be late for our appointment with Lestrade.
Sure enough, when we reached Baker Street the detective wasalready there, and we found him pacing up and down in a fever ofimpatience. His look of importance showed that his day’s workhad not been in vain.
“Well?” he asked. “What luck, Mr. Holmes?”
“We have had a very busy day, and not entirely a wasted one,”
my friend explained. “We have seen both the retailers and also thewholesale manufacturers. I can trace each of the busts now fromthe beginning.”
“The busts,” cried Lestrade. “Well, well, you have your ownmethods, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and it is not for me to say a wordagainst them, but I think I have done a better day’s work thanyou. I have identified the dead man.”
“You don’t say so?”
“And found a cause for the crime.”
“Splendid!”
“We have an inspector who makes a specialty of Saffron Hilland the Italian Quarter. Well, this dead man had some Catholicemblem round his neck, and that, along with his colour, mademe think he was from the South. Inspector Hill knew him themoment he caught sight of him. His name is Pietro Venucci, fromNaples, and he is one of the greatest cut-throats in London. He isconnected with the Mafia, which, as you know, is a secret politicalsociety, enforcing its decrees by murder. Now, you see how theaffair begins to clear up. The other fellow is probably an Italianalso, and a member of the Mafia. He has broken the rules in somefashion. Pietro is set upon his track. Probably the photograph wefound in his pocket is the man himself, so that he may not knifethe wrong person. He dogs the fellow, he sees him enter a house,he waits outside for him, and in the scuffle he receives his owndeath-wound. How is that, Mr. Sherlock Holmes?”
Holmes clapped his hands approvingly.
“Excellent, Lestrade, excellent!” he cried. “But I didn’t quitefollow your explanation of the destruction of the busts.”
“The busts! You never can get those busts out of your head.
After all, that is nothing; petty larceny, six months at the most. Itis the murder that we are really investigating, and I tell you that Iam gathering all the threads into my hands.”
“And the next stage?”
“Is a very simple one. I shall go down with Hill to the ItalianQuarter, find the man whose photograph we have got, and arrest himon the charge of murder. Will you come with us?”
“I think not. I fancy we can attain our end in a simpler way. I can’tsay for certain, because it all depends—well, it all depends upon a factorwhich is completely outside our control. But I have great hopes—infact, the betting is exactly two to one—that if you will come with usto-night I shall be able to help you to lay him by the heels.”
“In the Italian Quarter?”
“No, I fancy Chiswick is an address which is more likely to findhim. If you will come with me to Chiswick to-night, Lestrade, I’llpromise to go to the Italian Quarter with you to-morrow, and noharm will be done by the delay. And now I think that a few hours’
sleep would do us all good, for I do not propose to leave beforeeleven o’clock, and it is unlikely that we shall be back beforemorning. You’ll dine with us, Lestrade, and then you are welcometo the sofa until it is time for us to start. In the meantime, Watson,I should be glad if you would ring for an express messenger, for Ihave a letter to send and it is important that it should go at once.”
Holmes spent the evening in rummaging among the files of theold daily papers with which one of our lumber-rooms was packed.
When at last he descended, it was with triumph in his eyes, buthe said nothing to either of us as to the result of his researches.
For my own part, I had followed step by step the methods bywhich he had traced the various windings of this complex case,and, though I could not yet perceive the goal which we wouldreach, I understood clearly that Holmes expected this grotesquecriminal to make an attempt upon the two remaining busts, oneof which, I remembered, was at Chiswick. No doubt the object ofour journey was to catch him in the very act, and I could not butadmire the cunning with which my friend had inserted a wrongclue in the evening paper, so as to give the fellow the idea thathe could continue his scheme with impunity. I was not surprisedwhen Holmes suggested that I should take my revolver with me.
He had himself picked up the loaded hunting-crop, which was hisfavourite weapon.
