“They were lying _there_. And then to-day I said to Masha: ‘Where are those books?’ And she said: ‘What have I got to do with books, and what have you got to do with books?’” “In this house?” “Yes, _there_.” “Who dried them?” asked Holmes. “I cannot know,” she answered; “perhaps André knows.” “Who is André?” asked Holmes. “The night watchman,” answered the young Prince. “And after the books were dried did you see them?” asked Holmes. “Yes,” she answered. “Where?” he asked. “They were lying _there_,” she replied. “In the other house?” “Yes, _there_.” At that moment the butler entered, and the Prince asked him whether the skat-book or any other books had got wet from being left on the window-sill and had been dried. He replied that there were two books on the window-sill upstairs; they were still there, but nobody had dried them, because they had never been wet, and the skat-book was not among them. The young Prince repeated that they had played skat the preceding evening and had used the scoring book, which had been left on the drawing-room table. “Thank you,” said Holmes to the maid. “That is quite sufficient for the present. I should now like, if possible, to go to your office.” “Certainly,” said the Prince, “let us go.” We walked down to the office, which was about five minutes’ walk from the house, during which time Holmes carried on an animated conversation with the Prince on the political situation in Russia. We reached the office, and entered into a bare room, furnished with a stove and a writing-table, where we found two clerks at work. One of the clerks was the young man whom the Prince had just interviewed. “Which is the gentleman you mentioned?” asked Holmes in an aside to the Prince. “The man with a blue shirt,” replied the Prince: “would you like to examine him?” “No thank you,” replied Holmes. “I have seen all I wanted to see. I will now, if you permit me, go for a walk in the village by myself; I wish to think over a few things.” We returned to the house, and Holmes set out by himself for the village. I went up to my room to take a nap, for I was still rather tired after the journey. Holmes returned towards five o’clock in the afternoon, and, settling himself in an arm-chair, he said: “If you care to hear, Watson, I will tell you the result of my investigations.”