office--"why does that case remind you of business as it is conducted
to-day?"

"In this, that it is a good thing to stay out of unless you know it all,"
explained Holmes. "I omitted in the case of Burgess to observe one thing
about him. Had I observed that his nose was rectilinear, incurved, and
with a lifted base, and that his auricular temporal angle was between 96
and 97 degrees, I should have known at once that he was an impostor.
_Vide_ Ottolenghui on 'Ears and Noses I Have Met,' pp. 631-640."

"Do you mean to say that you can tell a criminal by his ears?" demanded
Hamlet.

"If he has any--yes; but I did not know that at the time of the Brighton
mystery. Therefore I should have stayed out of the case. But here we are.
Good-morning, Charon."

By this time the trio had entered the private office of the president of
the Styx Navigation Company, and in a few moments the vessel was chartered
at a fabulous price.

On the return to the wharf, Sir Walter somewhat nervously asked Holmes if
he thought the plan they had settled upon would work.

"Charon is a very shrewd old fellow," said he. "He may outwit us yet."

"The chances are just two and one-eighth degrees in your favor," observed
Holmes, quietly, with a glance at Raleigh's ears. "The temporal angle of
your ears is 93-1/8 degrees, whereas Charon's stand out at 91, by my
otometer. To that extent your criminal instincts are superior to his. If