Holmes dispatches some telegrams including an order for a newspaper notice about the ring. He also buys a facsimile of it. He guesses that the murderer, having already returned to the scene of the crime for it, would come to retrieve it. The advertisement is answered by an old woman who claims that the ring belongs to her daughter. Holmes gives her the duplicate, follows her, and returns to Watson later that night, explaining that she took a cab, he hopped onto the back of it, and when it stopped, he found that she had vanished. This leads Holmes to believe that it was an accomplice in disguise.