"You've found Hosmer Angel? Where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, looking frantically around the room like an animal caught in a trap.
"There's no escaping, Mr. Windibank," said Sherlock Holmes. "Sit down and let's talk this over."
Our visitor collapsed in a chair with a ghastly look on his face and beads of sweat on his brow. "I've done nothing illegal!" he said defiantly.
"That's right; nothing you did was illegal. But you played a heartless and selfish trick," said Holmes. "Now let me run through the series of events, and you can contradict me if I'm wrong."
Mr. Windibank huddled in his chair like someone who was utterly crushed. Holmes sat down and rested his feet on the hearth.
"A man married a much older woman for her money," began Holmes. "He also had the use of his stepdaughter's money for as long as she lived with them. The money was a considerable sum for people in their position, and the loss of it would have made a serious difference in their lifestyle."
Mr. Windibank said nothing, so Holmes continued the story. The stepdaughter was a kind and friendly person. With her income and her outgoing personality, it was obvious that she would not remain single for long. Her stepfather needed to take action, so he kept her at home and prevented her from having any contact with people her own age.
But he soon found that this would not solve the problem forever. The young woman became impatient and restless at home. She insisted upon her rights and finally announced that she would be attending the plumbers' ball with her mother.
"What did her clever stepfather do then?" asked Holmes. "With the assistance of his wife, he disguised himself as Hosmer Angel. He covered his keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked his face with a mustache and bushy whiskers, and reduced his voice to a whisper."
"And Miss Sutherland's poor eyesight made it even easier for the disguise to work," I said.
"Exactly!" said Holmes. "The stepfather kept men away from her by pretending to court her himself."
"It was only a joke at first," groaned Windibank. "We never thought that she'd fall for it so completely."
"But she did," said Holmes. "She believed that her stepfather was in France, so there was no reason to suspect him. She was flattered by Mr. Angel's attentions. Her mother increased the effect by enthusiastically approving of Mr. Angel."
Holmes said that after the ball it was essential for Mr. Angel to call on Miss Sutherland. It was obvious to her stepfather that the matter should be pushed as far as possible. An engagement would keep her—and her money—safe from any other men.
"But the deception could not be maintained forever," said Holmes. "Those pretend journeys to France were rather awkward. It was clearly time to end the business in a dramatic way that would leave a huge impression on the young woman. She had to be prevented from thinking about other suitors for a long time."
So on their wedding day, Hosmer Angel mentioned that something ominous might happen. And he made Miss Sutherland swear on a Bible that she would always be true to him.
"You wanted Miss Sutherland to be tied to Hosmer Angel and so uncertain about his fate that she would not look at another man for many years," said Holmes. "So you conveniently disappeared by the old trick of stepping into one door of a carriage and out the other. I think that was the chain of events, Mr. Windibank! Don't you agree?"
Our visitor had recovered some of his confidence while Holmes had been talking. Now he rose from his chair with a bitter sneer on his face.
"It may be the chain of events, or it may not be, Mr. Holmes," he said. "But if you're so smart, you should be smart enough to know that you are the one breaking the law now. I have done nothing illegal from the beginning, but as long as you keep the door locked, I could sue you for assault and unlawful restraint."
"As you say, the law cannot touch you." Holmes unlocked and threw open the door. "But there was never a man who deserved punishment more. If the young lady had a brother or a friend, he ought to horsewhip you."
Mr. Windibank continued to sneer at Holmes, which brought a flush of anger to the detective's face.
"It is not part of my duties to my client, but here's a riding crop, and I think I'll just use it." Holmes took two swift steps toward the whip, but before he could grasp it, Mr. Windibank dashed out of the room. With a loud clatter, he ran down the steps and out the front door. From the window we could see him running at top speed down the street.
"He's a cold-blooded scoundrel," said Holmes, laughing as he threw himself down on the chair once more. "That fellow will get away with this act, but eventually he'll commit a crime so bad he'll wind up on the gallows. This case has had some interesting points to it after all."
"I still can't follow all the steps in your reasoning," I said.
"It was obvious that this Mr. Hosmer Angel must have had a strong motive for his strange behavior," said Holmes. "And it was equally clear that the only man who profited from the incident was the stepfather. The two men were never in the same place at the same time. In fact, Angel only appeared when Windibank was away."
Holmes explained that the tinted glasses, whiskers, and strange voice all suggested a disguise. His suspicions were confirmed when Angel typed not only his letters to Miss Sutherland but also his signature.
"This suggested that his handwriting was so familiar to Miss Sutherland that she would recognize even the smallest sample," said Holmes.
"But how did you prove that Windibank and Angel were the same man?" I wanted to know.
"Miss Sutherland had provided us with the name of her stepfather's employer—the wine importers Westhouse and Marbank of Fenchurch Street," said Holmes. "I wrote to Windibank at that address, asking him to come here. As I expected, his reply was typewritten. The individual letters looked exactly the same as those in Angel's notes to Miss Sutherland."
Holmes took his investigation one step further. He started with the description of Hosmer Angel in Miss Sutherland's newspaper ad. Then he eliminated all the elements that could be a disguise—the glasses, whiskers, and voice. Finally he wrote a letter to the owners of Westhouse and Marbank, asking if they had any employees who matched that description.
"In the same mail with Windibank's reply, I received a response from the wine importers," said Holmes. "They said that my description exactly matched one of their employees—Mr. James Windibank."
The case was closed, but I had one more question. "What about Miss Sutherland? Will you tell her?"
Holmes sighed. "She won't believe me, Watson. Miss Sutherland is in love with 'Mr. Hosmer Angel.' She would rather delude herself about him than accept the fact that he never actually existed."