in the use of disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it

was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he emerged in

five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. Putting his hands into

his pockets, he stretched out his legs in front of the fire and laughed

heartily for some minutes.


“Well, really!” he cried, and then he choked and laughed again

until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the chair.


“What is it?”


“It’s quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I

employed my morning, or what I ended by doing.”


“I can’t imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the habits,

and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler.”


“Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, however. I

left the house a little after eight o’clock this morning in the character

of a groom out of work. There is a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among

horsey men. Be one of them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon

found Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but

built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock to the door.

Large sitting-room on the right side, well furnished, with long windows almost

to the floor, and those preposterous English window fasteners which a child

could open. Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window

could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round it and

examined it closely from every point of view, but without noting anything else

of interest.


“I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there was

a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the garden. I lent the ostlers

a hand in rubbing down their horses, and received in exchange twopence, a glass

of half-and-half, two fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could

desire about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in the