is why at sight of us one of the rogues should instantly walk out
of the room and hang himself."

"The paper!" croaked a voice behind us. The man was sitting up, blanched
and ghastly, with returning reason in his eyes, and hands which rubbed
nervously at the broad red band which still encircled his throat.

"The paper! Of course!" yelled Holmes, in a paroxysm of excitement.
"Idiot that I was! I thought so much of our visit that the paper never
entered my head for an instant. To be sure, the secret must be there."
He flattened it out upon the table, and a cry of triumph burst from his
lips. "Look at this, Watson," he cried. "It is a London paper, an early
edition of the Evening Standard. Here is what we want. Look at the
headlines: 'Crime in the City. Murder at Mawson & Williams's. Gigantic
attempted Robbery. Capture of the Criminal.' Here, Watson, we are all
equally anxious to hear it, so kindly read it aloud to us."

It appeared from its position in the paper to have been the one event of
importance in town, and the account of it ran in this way:

"A desperate attempt at robbery, culminating in the death of one man and
the capture of the criminal, occurred this afternoon in the City. For
some time back Mawson & Williams, the famous financial house, have been
the guardians of securities which amount in the aggregate to a sum of
considerably over a million sterling. So conscious was the manager of
the responsibility which devolved upon him in consequence of the great
interests at stake that safes of the very latest construction have
been employed, and an armed watchman has been left day and night in the
building. It appears that last week a new clerk named Hall Pycroft was
engaged by the firm. This person appears to have been none other that
Beddington, the famous forger and cracksman, who, with his brother, had
only recently emerged from a five years' spell of penal servitude. By
some means, which are not yet clear, he succeeded in winning, under a
false name, this official position in the office, which he utilized in
order to obtain moulding of various locks, and a thorough knowledge of
the position of the strong room and the safes.

"It is customary at Mawson's for the clerks to leave at midday on
Saturday. Sergeant Tuson, of the City Police, was somewhat surprised,
therefore to see a gentleman with a carpet bag come down the steps at
twenty minutes past one. His suspicions being aroused, the sergeant
followed th