"This is astonishing," said I, as I handed back the volume.
"The man's career is that of an honourable soldier."
"It is true," Holmes answered. "Up to a certain point he did
well. He was always a man of iron nerve, and the story is still
told in India how he crawled down a drain after a wounded
man-eating tiger. There are some trees, Watson, which grow to a
certain height, and then suddenly develop some unsightly eccen-
tricity. You will see it often in humans. I have a theory that the
individual represents in his development the whole procession of
his ancestors, and that such a sudden turn to good or evil stands
for some strong influence which came into the line of his pedi-
gree. The person becomes, as it were, the epitome of the history
of his own family."
"It is surely rather fanciful."
"Well, I don't insist upon it. Whatever the cause, Colonel
Moran began to go wrong. Without any open scandal, he still
made India too hot to hold him. He retired, came to London, and
again acquired an evil name. It was at this time that he was
sought out by Professor Moriarty, to whom for a time he was
chief of the staff.
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