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slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will observe, if you care to use my magnify- 
ing lens, that the fourteen other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as 
well." 

Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I cannot waste 
time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," he said. "If you can catch the 
man, catch him, and let me know when you have done it." 

"Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in the door. "I let 
you know, then, that I have caught him!" 

"What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips and glancing 
about him like a rat in a trap. 

"Oh, it won't do — really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There is no possible 
getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too transparent, and it was a very 
bad compliment when you said that it was impossible for me to solve so simple 
a question. That's right! Sit down and let us talk it over." 

Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a glitter of moisture 
on his brow. "It — it's not actionable," he stammered. 

"I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, Windibank, it was 
as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a petty way as ever came before me. 
Now, let me just run over the course of events, and you will contradict me if I go 
wrong." 

The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his breast, like one 
who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up on the corner of the mantelpiece 
and, leaning back with his hands in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as 
it seemed, than to us. 

"The man married a woman very much older than himself for her money," said 
he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the daughter as long as she lived with 
them. It was a considerable sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it 
would have made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. The 
daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate and warmhearted 
in her ways, so that it was evident that with her fair personal advantages, and her 
little income, she would not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage 
would mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her stepfather do 
to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of keeping her at home and forbidding 
her to seek the company of people of her own age. But soon he found that that 
would not answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and finally 
announced her positive intention of going to a certain ball. What does her clever 
stepfather do then? He conceives an idea more creditable to his head than to his 
heart. With the connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, covered 
those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with a moustache and a pair 
of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice into an insinuating whisper, and doubly 
secure on account of the girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and 
keeps off other lovers by making love himself." 

"It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never thought that she 
would have been so carried away." 



ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY