circus. here on the left hand
there stands a shop window filled with photographs of the
celebrities and beauties of the day. holmes's eyes fixed
themselves upon one of them, and following his gaze i saw
the picture of a regal and stately lady in court dress,
with a high diamond tiara upon her noble head. i looked at
that delicately-curved nose, at the marked eyebrows, at the
straight mouth, and the strong little chin beneath it.
then i caught my breath as i read the time-honoured title
of the great nobleman and statesman whose wife she had
been. my eyes met those of holmes, and he put his finger
to his lips as we turned away from the window.
{--------------------------------------------------------}
{-------------------- end of text -----------------------}
{--------------------------------------------------------}
{------------------- textual notes ----------------------}
{1} {debutante: the first e has a forward (/) accent}
{2} {fiancee: the first e has a forward (/) accent}
{3} {portiere: the first e has a backward (\) accent}
{---------------- end of textual notes ------------------}
{--------------------------------------------------------}
{six, rev 4, 1/17/96 rms, 4th proofing}
{the adventure of the six napoleons, arthur conan doyle}
{source: the strand magazine, 27 (may 1904)}
{etext prepared by roger squires rsquires@nmia.com}
{braces({}) in the text indicate textual end-notes}
{underscores (_) in the text indicate italics}
viii. -- the adventure of the six napoleons.
it was no very unusual thing for mr. lestrade, of scotland
yard, to look in upon us of an evening, and his visits were
welcome to sherlock holmes, for they enabled him to keep in
touch with all that was going on at the police head-quarters.
in return for the news which lestrade would bring, holmes was
always ready to listen with attention to the details of any
case upon which the detective was engaged, and was able
occasionally, without any active interference, to give some
hint or suggestion drawn from his own vast knowledge and
experience.
on this particular evening lestrade had spoken of the weather
and the newspapers. then he had fallen silent, puffing
thoughtfully at his cigar. holmes looked keenly at him.
"anything remarkable on hand?" he asked.
"oh, no, mr. holmes, nothing very particular."
"then tell me about it."
lestrade laughed.
"well, mr. holmes, there is no use denying that there _is_
something on my mind. and yet it is such an absurd
business that i hesitated to bother you about it. on the
other hand, although it is trivial, it is undoubtedly
queer, and i know that you have a taste for all that is
out of the common. but in my opinion it comes more in
dr. watson's line than ours."
"disease?" said i.
"madness, anyhow. and a queer madness too! you wouldn't
think there was anyone living at this time of day who had
such a hatred of napoleon the first that he would break any
image of him that he could see."
holmes sank back in his chair.
"that's no business of mine," said he.
"exactly. that's what i said. but then, when the man commits
burglary in order to break images which are not his own,
that brings it away from the doctor and on to the policeman."
holmes sat up again.
"burglary! this is more interesting. let me hear the
details."
lestrade took out his official note-book and refreshed his
memory from its pages.
"the first case reported was four days ago," said he.
"it was at the shop of morse hudson, who has a place for
the sale of pictures and statues in the kennington road.
the assistant had left the front shop for an instant when he
heard a crash, and hurrying in he found a plaster bust of
napoleon, which stood with several other works of art upon
the counter, lying shivered into fragments. he rushed out
into the road, but, although several passers-by declared
that they had noticed a man run out of the shop, he could
neither see anyone nor could he find any means of
identifying the rascal. it seemed to be one of those
senseless acts of hooliganism which occur from time to
time, and it was reported to the constable on the beat as
such. the plaster cast was not worth more than a few
shillings, and the whole affair appeared to be too childish
for any particular investigation.
"the second case, however, was more serious and also more
singular. it occurred only last night.
"in kennington road, and within a few hundred yards of
morse hudson's shop, there lives a well-known medical
practitioner, named dr. barnicot, who has one of the
largest practices upon the south side of the thames. his
residence and principal consulting-room is at kennington
road, but he has a branch surgery and dispensary at lower
brixton road, two miles away. this dr. barnicot is an
enthusiastic admirer of napoleon, and his house is full
of
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