Event
The London Cab Chase
While shadowing Sir Henry and Dr. Mortimer through the streets after their morning interview, Holmes and Watson catch sight of a black-bearded man watching the pair from a hansom cab. The instant they mark him the cab flies off down Regent Street, and Holmes, with no empty cab to follow in, loses his quarry and is left white with vexation at his own eagerness. He has at least taken the number of the cab, 2704.
Chapter V. Three Broken Threads
The driver, John Clayton, is traced and comes to Baker Street to be questioned. He reports that his vanished fare had posed as a detective and, on leaving, brazenly gave his name as Mr. Sherlock Holmes, a mocking touch that snaps the last of Holmes's London threads.
Chapter XV. A Retrospection
Explained in full: it was Stapleton, disguised in a false beard, who had shadowed the party by cab. His audacity in sending back Holmes's own name through the cabman told the detective there was no catching him in London.
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