which point to foul play. As far as we can learn, no actual
traces of violence were found upon Mr. Sholto's person, but
a valuable collection of Indian gems which the deceased
gentleman had inherited from his father has been carried
off. The discovery was first made by Mr. Sherlock Holmes
and Dr. Watson, who had called at the house with Mr.Thad-
deus Sholto, brother of the deceased. By a singular piece
of good fortune, Mr. Athelney Jones, the well-known member
of the detective police force, happened to be at the Norwood
police station and was on the ground within half an hour of
the first alarm. His trained and experienced faculties were at
once directed towards the detection of the criminals, with
the gratifying result that the brother, Thaddeus Sholto, has
already been arrested, together with the housekeeper, Mrs.
Bernstone, an Indian butler named Lal Rao, and a porter, or
gatekeeper, named McMurdo. It is quite certain that the
thief or thieves were well acquainted with the house, for
Mr. Jones's well-known technical knowledge and his powers
of minute observation have enabled him to prove conclusively
that the miscreants could not have entered by the door or by
the window but must have made their way across the roof of
the building, and so through a trapdoor into a room which
communicated with that in which the body was found. This
fact, which has been very clearly made out, proves con-
clusively that it was no mere haphazard burglary. The prompt
and energetic action of the officers of the law shows the
great advantage of the presence on such occasions of a
single vigorous and masterful mind. We cannot but think
that it supplies an argument to those who would wish to see
our detectives more decentralized, and so brought into closer