The editor had reason to be pleased that he inserted this letter, for it drew the following interesting communication from the great detective himself:—­

  “THE BIG BOW MYSTERY SOLVED

“Sir,—­I do not agree with you that your correspondent’s theory lacks originality.  On the contrary, I think it is delightfully original.  In fact it has given me an idea.  What that idea is I do not yet propose to say, but if ‘One who looks through his own spectacles’ will favour me with his name and address I shall be happy to inform him a little before the rest of the world whether his germ has borne any fruit.  I feel he is a kindred spirit, and take this opportunity of saying publicly that I was extremely disappointed at the unsatisfactory verdict.  The thing was a palpable assassination; an open verdict has a tendency to relax the exertions of Scotland Yard.  I hope I shall not be accused of immodesty, or of making personal reflections, when I say that the Department has had several notorious failures of late.  It is not what it used to be.  Crime is becoming impertinent.  It no longer knows its place, so to speak.  It throws down the gauntlet where once it used to cower in its fastnesses.  I repeat, I make these remarks solely in the interest of law and order.  I do not for one moment believe that Arthur Constant killed himself, and if Scotland Yard satisfies itself with that explanation, and turns on its other side and goes to sleep again, then, sir, one of the foulest and most horrible crimes of the century will for ever go unpunished.  My acquaintance with the unhappy victim was but recent; still, I saw and knew enough of the man to be certain (and I hope I have seen and known enough of other men to judge) that he was a man constitutionally incapable of committing an act of violence, whether against himself or anybody else.  He would not hurt a fly, as the saying goes.  And a man of that gentle stamp always lacks the active energy to lay hands on himself.  He was a man to be esteemed in no common degree, and I feel proud to be able to say that he considered me a friend.  I am hardly at the time of life at which a man cares to put on his harness again; but, sir, it is impossible that I should ever know a day’s rest till the perpetrator of this foul deed is discovered.  I have already put myself in communication with the family of the victim, who, I am pleased to say, have every confidence in me, and look to me to clear the name of their unhappy relative from the semi-imputation of suicide.  I shall be pleased if any one who shares my distrust of the authorities, and who has any clue whatever to this terrible mystery or any plausible suggestion to offer, if, in brief, any ‘One who looks through his own spectacles’ will communicate with me.  If I were asked to indicate the direction in which new clues might be most usefully sought, I should say, in the first instance, anything is valuable that helps us to piece together a complete