certainly remarkable. The gentleman was bearded and moustached,
you say?"

"Yes, sir."

"I don't understand that. I should say that only a clean-shaven
man could have smoked this. Why, Watson, even your modest
moustache would have been singed."

"A holder?" I suggested.

"No, no; the end is matted. I suppose there could not be two
people in your rooms, Mrs. Warren?"

"No, sir. He eats so little that I often wonder it can keep life
in one."

"Well, I think we must wait for a little more material. After
all, you have nothing to complain of. You have received your
rent, and he is not a troublesome lodger, though he is certainly
an unusual one. He pays you well, and if he chooses to lie
concealed it is no direct business of yours. We have no excuse
for an intrusion upon his privacy until we have some reason to
think that there is a guilty reason for it. I've taken up the
matter, and I won't lose sight of it. Report to me if anything
fresh occurs, and rely upon my assistance if it should be needed.

"There are certainly some points of interest in this case,
Watson," he remarked when the landlady had left us. "It may, of
course, be trivial--individual eccentricity; or it may be very