consults with them about the affair. As payment for his services, the Queen heals the veteran's withered shoulder with a touch. The investigation takes the detective and the veteran to a music hall show, starring a noted actor called Sherry Vernet. A "tall, languid" man, Vernet stars in three productions, including a historical narrative depicting the war between humanity and the Great Old Ones. Posing as a theatrical agent offering to take the show to the New World, the detective meets Vernet and quickly determines that he and another, a man with a limp and skill with surgical equipment, were present in the room where the German noble died. Agreeing to meet the detective in his rooms, Vernet seemingly does not suspect a thing; the detective promptly summons Lestrade, intending to have Vernet arrested. He reveals what he has deduced: that Vernet is a seditionary "Restorationist", an anarchist who believes that the Great Old Ones are not the benevolent rulers that they claim to be, but vicious, soul-destroying monsters from whom humanity must be freed. Vernet lured the German noble to the Whitechapel rooms and turned the noble over to his accomplice, who committed the actual murder. But when the detective and his allies try to spring their trap, they find that their quarry has eluded them, leaving behind only a letter that confirms the detective's suspicions; Vernet also possesses considerable deductive abilities and has deduced that the detective was not who he claimed to be. Vernet reveals that he had briefly corresponded with the detective posing as a man named "Sigerson", offers suggestions for future undercover work and compliments several papers that the detective had written, including "The Dynamics of an Asteroid". Vernet, who also uses the alias "Rache", also details horrors that he has witnessed being committed by the Great Old Ones as justification for the crime. As Lestrade rushes off to search for Vernet and the limping accomplice (tentatively identified as a former military surgeon named John (or maybe James) Watson), the detective admits that it is unlikely that Vernet has left the city, having probably elected (as the detective would) to hide in the lawless depths of the rookery of St. Giles until the search is abandoned. He requests that the veteran burn Vernet's letter, dismissing it as "seditionary nonsense". The veteran does not do so, instead adding a copy of the letter and an account