Holmes gave me this account as I cleansed and stitched the wound. The lady retained her accustomed silence, except for an occasional sharp intake of breath when the operation became unavoidably painful.

"It was partly my fault. Fool that I was to leave it to that idiot Lestrade!" he began bitterly. "But I should begin at the beginning, after which our lady can tell you her part of the story.

"I had spent the rest of the day after I left you at my cross-indexing. After supper Lestrade dropped by for a pipe, as is his occasional habit. I asked him how his search in Camberwell was progressing.

" 'Ah, Mr. Holmes,' said he cheerily. 'What an anticlimax we have had! Not two hours ago the lady's brother turned up to claim her.'

" 'What!' I cried, amazed.

" 'Yes, there was no doubt about it. After what you had said this morning I was inclined to take a suspicious view of him, but he was able to establish his credentials quite satisfactorily. By the way, one of your deductions at least came home to roost; the fellow was a naturalized American citizen who had been born in England, as was his sister, and he had both their passports to prove his word. His name is Ormond Sacker; his sister's name is Violet. He was undoubtably one of the two fellows the lady described, though her view of him was so unflattering it was hard to see at first. He was a dark-haired young fellow about 35, my height or a little shorter, with protuberant brown eyes; he dressed quite the gentleman. He had a round, smooth, pale face an a quick way of moving. It turns out the lady had had brain fever in America and had been in rather a bad way.