"I must really apologize, Hopkins," said Sherlock Holmes;

"I fear that the scrambled eggs are cold. However, you will

enjoy the rest of your breakfast all the better, will you not,

for the thought that you have brought your case to a triumphant

conclusion."

Stanley Hopkins was speechless with amazement.

"I don't know what to say, Mr. Holmes," he blurted out at last,

with a very red face. "It seems to me that I have been making

a fool of myself from the beginning. I understand now, what I

should never have forgotten, that I am the pupil and you are the

master. Even now I see what you have done, but I don't know how

you did it, or what it signifies."

"Well, well," said Holmes, good-humouredly. "We all learn by

experience, and your lesson this time is that you should never

lose sight of the alternative. You were so absorbed in young

Neligan that you could not spare a thought to Patrick Cairns,

13.10.2007