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or sealed inside the carriage walls. But it has been hidden so craftily that no outward inspection will reveal its presence. Somehow or other we must deprive him of his carriage and see how he reacts to that.’
    â€˜That shouldn’t be too difficult. Break the axles and wheels.’
    â€˜Hmm, that’s not too subtle,’ answered Holmes. ‘It must bedone in a way that is not apparent. I’ll take him inside the post house. Let the mine guard take over. He must order the coachman to break down somewhere along the way.’ He thought for a moment and added, ‘Towards which end, it would help to saw through the axle just a little.’
VII
    Saying this, he left me and walked towards Seltzoff. Seltzoff followed his movements with irony in his eyes. Holmes asked him to return with him to the post house, leaving me alone with the mine guard.
    Left one-on-one with this keeper of law and order, I passed Holmes’s instructions to him. He nodded his head to signal his willingness, called over Seltzoff’s coachman and began to explain to him what had to be done.
    For my part, I promised the coachman a reward of fifty roubles if he could bring the manager’s carriage into a state of utter disrepair and explained that this was being done for the good of his employers. Needless to say, the coachman readily agreed to everything. ‘There is a steep incline not far from here and where it turns there is a mileage pillar,’ he said. ‘Ride into it at full tilt and the carriage will disintegrate.’
    I got a little saw out of my suitcase and quickly filed under both axles. A few minutes later Holmes and Seltzoff emerged. Holmes apologized for having caused him so much inconvenience and did it with such patent sincerity that the mine guard and I couldn’t believe our ears. He even appeared to have made friends with the manager.
    We all sat down to breakfast together, drank a bottle of champagne and decided to drive to Irkutsk together. We stowed away our luncheon baskets, took our seats in our respective carriages and set off. Seltzoff went ahead and we followed. SherlockHolmes never took his eyes off the troika ahead of us. And now, at last, the steep incline the coachman had told us about appeared.
    As soon as we got to the top of the incline, the horses of the leading troika began to play up. No matter how hard the coachman tried, he couldn’t control them. The sweating horses reared up and raced down. Seltzoff was terrified. But he leaped up, seized and pulled at the reins of the horse on the left. This worked somewhat. Their pace lessened but was still somewhat strong.
    The coachman panicked as the troika flew towards the mileage pillar. But just before the mileage pillar he apparently came to himself. The troika zigzagged. The horses escaped the impending disaster, but not the carriage. There was the sound of a terrible crack. The horses came to a halt. The coachman went flying head over heels off his seat. Seltzoff was thrown on the back of one of the horses.
    â€˜Bloody idiot!’ he exclaimed angrily getting off. ‘Thank heavens they are right behind us, otherwise what would we do between two post houses!’ He was walking round his coach, shaking his head in distress.
    Our troika stopped beside him and we got down and expressed our sympathy.
    â€˜What’s there to grieve over,’ he answered sadly. ‘I’ll have to abandon the carriage. You, gentlemen, will have to be somewhat a little squeezed.’
    â€˜Of course,’ exclaimed Holmes, ‘but surely you don’t intend to abandon such a carriage!’
    â€˜What am I supposed to do about it, carry it? It will be a lucky find for someone who might even be grateful for such a find.’
    The trap hadn’t worked. Seltzoff’s things were stowed in our carriage and, taking only his horses and their harness, we set off. But with five people, the load was too much.
    â€˜I suggest