"
"You had dreamed its solution?" asked Raleigh.
"No," replied Holmes. "Burgess had disappeared with all my clothing, my
false-beard, my suit-case, and my watch. The only thing he had left me was
the bathing-suit and a few empty small bottles."
"And why, may I ask," put in Hamlet, as they drew near to Charon's
office--"why does that case remind you of business as it is conducted
to-day?"
"In this, that it is a good thing to stay out of unless you know it all,"
explained Holmes. "I omitted in the case of Burgess to observe one thing
about him. Had I observed that his nose was rectilinear, incurved, and
with a lifted base, and that his auricular temporal angle was between 96
and 97 degrees, I should have known at once that he was an impostor.
_Vide_ Ottolenghui on 'Ears and Noses I Have Met,' pp. 631-640."
"Do you mean to say that you can tell a criminal by his ears?" demanded
Hamlet.
"If he has any--yes; but I did not know that at the time of the Brighton
mystery. Therefore I should have stayed out of the case. But here we are.
Good-morning, Charon."
By this time the trio had entered the private office of the president of
the Styx Navigation Company, and in a few moments the vessel was chartered
at a fabulous price.
On the return to the wharf, Sir Walter somewhat nervously asked Holmes if
he thought the plan they had settled upon would work.
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