This business
concluded, he started to go.
"'Won't you have a little Scotch?' I asked, as he started, feeling, with
all that prospective profit in view, I could well afford the expense. 'It
is a stormy night.'
"'Thanks, I will,' said he, returning and seating himself by my
table--still, to my surprise, keeping his hat on.
"'Let me take your hat,' I said, little thinking that my courtesy would
reveal the true state of affairs. The mere mention of the word hat brought
about a terrible change in my visitor; his knees trembled, his face grew
ghastly, and he clutched the brim of his beaver until it cracked. He then
nervously removed it, and I noticed a dull red mark running about his
forehead, just as there would be on the forehead of a man whose hat fitted
too tightly; and that mark, gentlemen, had the undulating outline of
nothing more nor less than a tiara, and on the apex of the uppermost
extremity was a deep indentation about the size of a shilling, that could
have been made only by some adamantine substance! The mystery was solved!
The robber of the Duchess of Brokedale stood before me."
A suppressed murmur of excitement went through the assembled spirits, and
even Messrs. Hawkshaw and Le Coq were silent in the presence of such
genius.
"My plan of action was immediately formulated. The man was completely at
my mercy.
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