circus. here on the left hand

there stands a shop window filled with photographs of the

celebrities and beauties of the day. holmes's eyes fixed

themselves upon one of them, and following his gaze i saw

the picture of a regal and stately lady in court dress,

with a high diamond tiara upon her noble head. i looked at

that delicately-curved nose, at the marked eyebrows, at the

straight mouth, and the strong little chin beneath it.

then i caught my breath as i read the time-honoured title

of the great nobleman and statesman whose wife she had

been. my eyes met those of holmes, and he put his finger

to his lips as we turned away from the window.

{--------------------------------------------------------}

{-------------------- end of text -----------------------}

{--------------------------------------------------------}

{------------------- textual notes ----------------------}

{1} {debutante: the first e has a forward (/) accent}

{2} {fiancee: the first e has a forward (/) accent}

{3} {portiere: the first e has a backward (\) accent}

{---------------- end of textual notes ------------------}

{--------------------------------------------------------}

{six, rev 4, 1/17/96 rms, 4th proofing}

{the adventure of the six napoleons, arthur conan doyle}

{source: the strand magazine, 27 (may 1904)}

{etext prepared by roger squires rsquires@nmia.com}

{braces({}) in the text indicate textual end-notes}

{underscores (_) in the text indicate italics}

viii. -- the adventure of the six napoleons.

it was no very unusual thing for mr. lestrade, of scotland

yard, to look in upon us of an evening, and his visits were

welcome to sherlock holmes, for they enabled him to keep in

touch with all that was going on at the police head-quarters.

in return for the news which lestrade would bring, holmes was

always ready to listen with attention to the details of any

case upon which the detective was engaged, and was able

occasionally, without any active interference, to give some

hint or suggestion drawn from his own vast knowledge and

experience.

on this particular evening lestrade had spoken of the weather

and the newspapers. then he had fallen silent, puffing

thoughtfully at his cigar. holmes looked keenly at him.

"anything remarkable on hand?" he asked.

"oh, no, mr. holmes, nothing very particular."

"then tell me about it."

lestrade laughed.

"well, mr. holmes, there is no use denying that there _is_

something on my mind. and yet it is such an absurd

business that i hesitated to bother you about it. on the

other hand, although it is trivial, it is undoubtedly

queer, and i know that you have a taste for all that is

out of the common. but in my opinion it comes more in

dr. watson's line than ours."

"disease?" said i.

"madness, anyhow. and a queer madness too! you wouldn't

think there was anyone living at this time of day who had

such a hatred of napoleon the first that he would break any

image of him that he could see."

holmes sank back in his chair.

"that's no business of mine," said he.

"exactly. that's what i said. but then, when the man commits

burglary in order to break images which are not his own,

that brings it away from the doctor and on to the policeman."

holmes sat up again.

"burglary! this is more interesting. let me hear the

details."

lestrade took out his official note-book and refreshed his

memory from its pages.

"the first case reported was four days ago," said he.

"it was at the shop of morse hudson, who has a place for

the sale of pictures and statues in the kennington road.

the assistant had left the front shop for an instant when he

heard a crash, and hurrying in he found a plaster bust of

napoleon, which stood with several other works of art upon

the counter, lying shivered into fragments. he rushed out

into the road, but, although several passers-by declared

that they had noticed a man run out of the shop, he could

neither see anyone nor could he find any means of

identifying the rascal. it seemed to be one of those

senseless acts of hooliganism which occur from time to

time, and it was reported to the constable on the beat as

such. the plaster cast was not worth more than a few

shillings, and the whole affair appeared to be too childish

for any particular investigation.

"the second case, however, was more serious and also more

singular. it occurred only last night.

"in kennington road, and within a few hundred yards of

morse hudson's shop, there lives a well-known medical

practitioner, named dr. barnicot, who has one of the

largest practices upon the south side of the thames. his

residence and principal consulting-room is at kennington

road, but he has a branch surgery and dispensary at lower

brixton road, two miles away. this dr. barnicot is an

enthusiastic admirer of napoleon, and his house is full

of