The person becomes, as it were, the
epitome of the history of his own family."
"It is surely rather fanciful."
"Well, I don't insist upon it. Whatever the cause, Colonel
Moran began to go wrong. Without any open scandal he still made
India too hot to hold him. He retired, came to London, and
again acquired an evil name. It was at this time that he was
sought out by Professor Moriarty, to whom for a time he was
chief of the staff. Moriarty supplied him liberally with money
and used him only in one or two very high-class jobs which no
ordinary criminal could have undertaken. You may have some
recollection of the death of Mrs. Stewart, of Lauder, in 1887.
Not? Well, I am sure Moran was at the bottom of it; but nothing
could be proved. So cleverly was the Colonel concealed that
even when the Moriarty gang was broken up we could not
incriminate him. You remember at that date, when I called upon
you in your rooms, how I put up the shutters for fear of
air-guns? No doubt you thought me fanciful. I knew exactly
what I was doing, for I knew of the existence of this remarkable
gun, and I knew also that one of the best shots in the world
would be behind it.
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