For the first time our eyes rested
upon this presentment of the great emperor, which seemed to
raise such frantic and destructive hatred in the mind of the
unknown. It lay scattered, in splintered shards, upon the grass.
Holmes picked up several of them and examined them carefully.
I was convinced, from his intent face and his purposeful manner,
that at last he was upon a clue.
"Well?" asked Lestrade.
Holmes shrugged his shoulders.
"We have a long way to go yet," said he. "And yet -- and
yet -- well, we have some suggestive facts to act upon. The
possession of this trifling bust was worth more, in the eyes of
this strange criminal, than a human life. That is one point. Then
there is the singular fact that he did not break it in the house, or
immediately outside the house, if to break it was his sole object."
"He was rattled and bustled by meeting this other fellow. He
hardly knew what he was doing."
"Well, that's likely enough. But I wish to call your attention
very particularly to the position of this house, in the garden of
which the bust was destroyed.
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