gone two days before the bust was smashed."

"Well, that's all we could reasonably expect to get from Morse

Hudson," said Holmes, as we emerged from the shop. "We have this

Beppo as a common factor, both in Kennington and in Kensington,

so that is worth a ten-mile drive. Now, Watson, let us make

for Gelder and Co., of Stepney, the source and origin of busts.

I shall be surprised if we don't get some help down there."

In rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable

London, hotel London, theatrical London, literary London,

commercial London, and, finally, maritime London, till we came

to a riverside city of a hundred thousand souls, where the

tenement houses swelter and reek with the outcasts of Europe.

Here, in a broad thoroughfare, once the abode of wealthy City

merchants, we found the sculpture works for which we searched.

Outside was a considerable yard full of monumental masonry.

Inside was a large room in which fifty workers were carving or

moulding. The manager, a big blond German, received us civilly,

and gave a clear answer to all Holmes's questions. A reference

02.02.2007