SPOILERS!!!
After Sherlock asks Watson to go with him, he tells him in the carriage about the case he is investigating. Neville St Clair was a man from Lee whose wife has come to Holmes to report her husband's disappearance. She had to go to London to pick up a telegram, and then she saw her husband at a window, who mada gesture. The window was in the opium den that Watson had been trying to find his wife's friend's husband. Mrs St Clair wen into the building and a Lascar tried to stop her on the stairs, so she went to the police. The police found a lodger there, and at the window they found some blood drops, and in the alley behind the building Neville's clothes were found.
When Holmes and Watson get to the St Clairs', the woman asks Holmes if he believes that Neville is dead, and Holmes says that it is a strong possibility. Then the woman produces a letter that she has just received. The address is in Neville's hand, and inside the envelope she found his ring.
Holmes and Watson spend the night there, and Holmes hardly sleeps as he spends the night going through the case. When Watson wakes up, Holmes tells him that they need to go and talk to the lodger, Hugh Boone, who was arrested. When they get there, the inspector tells him that the lodger is the ugliest and dirtiest man he has ever met. Holmes wants to see him, and he sees that the lodger is sleeping. The inspector gives him a cloth and Holmes wipes his face. The lodger who is a begger is Neville in disguise. When the man realises that he has been found, he tells Holmes his story. He says that when he was young, he worked as a reporter, and for one of his articles he dressed up as a beggar. Then he realised that he made more money begging for money than at work. So since then, he has been leading a double life. It was just coincidence that his wife saw him, and he panicked because he couldn't stand the idea of his wife and children discovering what he had been doing. Neville is released, and Holmes and Watson promise to keep his secret.
An interesting case, and one that shows some social criticism.
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