When our illustrious visitors had departed Holmes lit his pipe in silence, and sat for some time lost in the deepest thought.
I had opened the morning paper and was immersed in a sensational crime which had occurred in London the night before, when my friend gave an exclamation, sprang to his feet, and laid his pipe down upon the mantelpiece.
"Yes," said he, "there is no better way of approaching it.
The situation is desperate, but not hopeless.Even now, if we could be sure which of them has taken it, it is just possible that it has not yet passed out of his hands.
After all, it is a question of money with these fellows, and I have the British Treasury behind me.If it's on the market I'll buy it -- if it means another penny on the income-tax.
It is conceivable that the fellow might hold it back to see what bids come from this side before he tries his luck on the other.
There are only those three capable of playing so bold a game;there are Oberstein, La Rothiere, and Eduardo Lucas.
I will see each of them."
I glanced at my morning paper.
"Is that Eduardo Lucas of Godolphin Street?""Yes."
"You will not see him."
"Why not?"
"He was murdered in his house last night."My friend has so often astonished me in the course of our adventures that it was with a sense of exultation that Irealized how completely I had astonished him.He stared in amazement, and then snatched the paper from my hands.This was the paragraph which I had been engaged in reading when he rose from his chair:--"MURDER IN WESTMINSTER.
"A crime of mysterious character was committed last night at 16, Godolphin Street, one of the old-fashioned and secluded rows of eighteenth-century houses which lie between the river and the Abbey, almost in the shadow of the great Tower of the Houses of Parliament.This small but select mansion has been inhabited for some years by Mr.Eduardo Lucas, well known in society circles both on account of his charming personality and because he has the well-deserved reputation of being one of the best amateur tenors in the country.Mr.Lucas is an unmarried man, thirty-four years of age, and his establishment consists of Mrs.Pringle, an elderly housekeeper, and of Mitton, his valet.