up
wonderfully. When I came down to our room I found the breakfast laid
and Homes pouring out the coffee.

"Here it is," said he, laughing, and pointing to an open newspaper.
"The energetic Jones and the ubiquitous reporter have fixed it up
between them. But you have had enough of the case. Better have your
ham and eggs first."

I took the paper from him and read the short notice, which was headed
"Mysterious Business at Upper Norwood."

"About twelve o'clock last night," said the Standard, "Mr. Bartholomew
Sholto, of Pondicherry Lodge, Upper Norwood, was found dead in his room
under circumstances which point to foul play. As far as we can learn,
no actual traces of violence were found upon Mr. Sholto's person, but a
valuable collection of Indian gems which the deceased gentleman had
inherited from his father has been carried off. The discovery was
first made by Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who had called at the
house with Mr. Thaddeus Sholto, brother of the deceased. By a singular
piece of good fortune, Mr. Athelney Jones, the well-known member of the
detective police force, happened to be at the Norwood Police Station,
and was on the ground within half an hour of the first alarm. His
trained and experienced faculties were at once directed towards the
detection of the criminals, with the gratifying result that the
brother, Thaddeus Sholto, has already been arrested, together with the
housekeeper, Mrs. Bernstone, an Indian butler named Lal Rao, and a
porter, or gatekeeper, named McMurdo. It is quite certain that the
thief or thieves were well acquainted with the house, for Mr. Jones's
well-known technical knowledge and his powers of minute observation
have enabled him to prove conclusively that the miscreants could not
have entered by the door or by the window, but must have made their way
across the roof of the building, and so through a trap-door into a room
which communicated with that in which the body was found. This fact,
which has been very clearly made out, proves conclusively that it was
no mere haphazard burglary. The prompt and energetic action of the
officers of the law shows the great advantage of the presence on such
occasions of a single vigorous and masterful mind. We cannot but think
that it supplies an argument to those who would wish to see our
detectives more decentralized, and so brought into closer and more
effective touch with the cases which it is their duty to investigate."