"Hadn't we better--" he
said.
"We are doing so," Holmes interrupted. "All that I am saying has
a very direct and vital bearing upon what you have called the
Birlstone Mystery. In fact, it may in a sense be called the very
centre of it."
MacDonald smiled feebly, and looked appealingly to me. "Your
thoughts move a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out
a link or two, and I can't get over the gap. What in the whole
wide world can be the connection between this dead painting man
and the affair at Birlstone?"
"All knowledge comes useful to the detective," remarked Holmes.
"Even the trivial fact that in the year 1865 a picture by Greuze
entitled La Jeune Fille a l'Agneau fetched one million two
hundred thousand francs--more than forty thousand pounds--at the
Portalis sale may start a train of reflection in your mind."
It was clear that it did. The inspector looked honestly
interested.
"I may remind you," Holmes continued, "that the professor's
salary can be ascertained in several trustworthy books of
reference. It is seven hundred a year."
"Then how could he buy--"
"Quite so! How could he?"
"Ay, that's remarkable," said the inspector thoughtfully.
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