He and the housekeeper, Mrs.
Bernstone, were both released yesterday evening. It is be-
lieved, however, that the police have a clue as to the real
culprits, and that it is being prosecuted by Mr. Athelney
Jones, of Scotland Yard, with all his well-known energy
and sagacity. Further arrests may be expected at any
moment.
"That is satisfactory so far as it goes," thought I. "Friend
Sholto is safe, at any rate. I wonder what the fresh clue may be
though it seems to be a stereotyped form whenever the police
have made a blunder."
I tossed the paper down upon the table, but at that moment my
eye caught an advertisement in the agony column. It ran in this
way:
LOST -- Whereas Mordecai Smith, boatman, and his son Jim
left Smith's Wharf at or about three o'clock last Tuesday
morning in the steam launch Aurora, black with two red
stripes, funnel black with a white band, the sum of five
pounds will be paid to anyone who can give information to
Mrs. Smith, at Smith's Wharf, or at 22lB, Baker Street, as
to the whereabouts of the said Mordecai Smith and the
launch Aurora.
This was clearly Holmes's doing. The Baker Street address
was enough to prove that. It struck me as rather ingenious
because it might be read by the fugitives without their seeing in
it more than the natural anxiety of a wife for her missing
husband.
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