not add are thoroughly untrustworthy. It would brighten my
declining years to see a German cruiser navigating the Solent
according to the mine-field plans which I have furnished. But
you, Watson"--he stopped his work and took his old friend by the
shoulders--"I've hardly seen you in the light yet. How have the
years used you? You look the same blithe boy as ever."

"I feel twenty years younger, Holmes. I have seldom felt so
happy as when I got your wire asking me to meet you at Harwich
with the car. But you, Holmes--you have changed very little--
save for that horrible goatee."

"These are the sacrifices one makes for one's country, Watson,"
said Holmes, pulling at his little tuft. "To-morrow it will be
but a dreadful memory. With my hair cut and a few other
superficial changes I shall no doubt reappear at Claridge's to-
morrow as I was before this American stunt--I beg your pardon,
Watson, my well of English seems to be permanently defiled--
before this American job came my way."

"But you have retired, Holmes. We heard of you as living the
life of a hermit among your bees and your books in a small farm
upon the South Downs."

"Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the
magnum opus of my latter years!" He picked up the volume from
the table and read out the whole title, Practical Handbook of Bee
Culture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the
Queen. "Alone I did it. Behold the fruit of pensive nights and
laborious days when I watched the little working gangs as once I