One foggy night along the Thames, a man was murdered on his way home. The witness walking down the adjacent street heard a scuffle and a shot but saw nothing. Nonetheless, with Holmes’ astonishing detective work, the murderer was apprehended, tried, and tidily hanged. Now, with Watson pestering him for an account of the case, what does Holmes recall?  Just this: the policeman picked up Graham near the scene; Krull knew both the victim and the murderer; and Burke and Adler never met. In court the judge asked Clayton to give his account of the shooting; and Adler was the last of the six to see Forbes alive. Holmes might remember the whole sordid affair if he could only reconstruct the role each man played—victim, murderer, witness, policeman, judge and hangman. But with so few facts, how could anyone be so brilliant?