ire, it will be taken up
by quite a number of people. You may then walk to the end of the street,
and I will rejoin you in ten minutes. I hope that I have made myself
clear?"

"I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, and, at
the signal, to throw in this object, then to raise the cry of fire and
to wait you at the corner of the street."

"Precisely."

"Then you may entirely rely on me."

"That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I prepared
for the new role I have to play."

He disappeared into his bedroom, and returned in a few minutes in the
character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist clergyman. His
broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white tie, his sympathetic
smile, and general look of peering and benevolent curiosity were such as
Mr. John Hare alone could have equalled. It was not merely that Holmes
changed his costume. His expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to
vary with every fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine
actor, even as science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a
specialist in crime.

It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still wanted
ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Serpentine Avenue. It
was already dusk, and the lamps were just being lighted as we paced up
and down in front of Briony Lodge, waiting for the coming of its
occupant. The house was just such as I had pictured it from Sherlock
Holmes's succinct description, but the locality appeared to be less
private than I expected. On the contrary, for a small street in a quiet
neighbourhood, it was remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily
dressed men smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with
his wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and
several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with cigars
in their mouths.

"You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of the
house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The photograph becomes
a double-edged weapon now. The chances are that she would be as averse
to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Norton as our client is to its coming
to the eyes of his princess. Now the question is--where are we to find
the photograph?"

"Where, indeed?"

"It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is cabinet
size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's dress. She knows
that the king is capable of havin