He inhabited rooms at Balham or Brixton, I forget which. He never swore, he never drank, he never smoked, or looked at the female population of the British Islands with a view to matrimony or the reverse. The man was without a visible vice, and he had several visible virtues. It was this fact that made the problem of him so interesting and made the attentive student of him pause to ask, "What makes him so beastly?"
You know the man.
Moriarty, having watered the horses and seen to them with the scrupulous attention of a nurse, called Andy to him.
"Andy," said Moriarty, "did you see the chap that's come to collar the horses?"
"Seen him?" said Andy, for once loquacious. "Faith, I was near pitchforkin' him as he was standin' there, afther you'd left him. Sure, wasn't I listenin' to him——"
"Shut your head," said Moriarty, "and listen to your betthers. Go fetch me a big truss of straw."
Andy, obedient as a dog, went off for the straw, and returned with it on his back.
Moriarty opened the door of the loose-box next to The Cat's.
"Stick it here in the corner," said Moriarty, indicating the corner in question.
Andy flung the truss of straw in the corner.