think of this old scandal gaining a new lease of life. Did you ever hear of Dawson and Neligan?”
I could see, from Hopkins’s face, that he never had, but Holmes was keenly interested.
“You mean the West Country bankers,” said he. “They failed for a million, ruined half the county families of Cornwall, and Neligan disappeared.”
“Exactly. Neligan was my father.”
At last we were getting something positive, and yet it seemed a long gap between an absconding banker and Captain Peter Carey pinned against the wall with one of his own harpoons. We all listened intently to the young man’s words.