swore.

"Though unmusical, German is the most expressive of all
languages," he observed when Von Bork had stopped from pure
exhaustion. "Hullo! Hullo!" he added as he looked hard at the
corner of a tracing before putting it in the box. "This should
put another bird in the cage. I had no idea that the paymaster
was such a rascal, though I have long had an eye upon him.
Mister Von Bork, you have a great deal to answer for."

The prisoner had raised himself with some difficulty upon the
sofa and was staring with a strange mixture of amazement and
hatred at his captor.

"I shall get level with you, Altamont," he said, speaking with
slow deliberation. "If it takes me all my life I shall get level
with you!"

"The old sweet song," said Holmes. "How often have I heard it in
days gone by. It was a favorite ditty of the late lamented
Professor Moriarty. Colonel Sebastian Moran has also been known
to warble it. And yet I live and keep bees upon the South
Downs."

"Curse you, you double traitor!" cried the German, straining
against his bonds and glaring murder from his furious eyes.

"No, no, it is not so bad as that," said Holmes, smiling. "As my
speech surely shows you, Mr. Altamont of Chicago had no existence
in fact. I used him and he is gone."