“By thunder, you’re right! Well, if that isn’t smart!” cried Sir Henry.
“If any possible doubt remained it is settled by the fact that ‘keepaway’ and ‘from the’ are cut out in one piece.”
“Well, now—so it is!”
“Really, Mr. Holmes, this exceeds anything which I could haveimagined,” said Dr. Mortimer, gazing at my friend in amazement.
“I could understand anyone saying that the words were from anewspaper; but that you should name which, and add that it camefrom the leading article, is really one of the most remarkablethings which I have ever known. How did you do it?”
“I presume, Doctor, that you could tell the skull of a negro fromthat of an Esquimau?”
“Most certainly.”
“But how?”
“Because that is my special hobby. The differences are obvious.
The supra-orbital crest, the facial angle, the maxillary curve, the —”
“But this is my special hobby, and the differences are equallyobvious. There is as much difference to my eyes between theleaded bourgeois type of a Times article and the slovenly print ofan evening half-penny paper as there could be between your negroand your Esquimau. The detection of types is one of the mostelementary branches of knowledge to the special expert in crime,though I confess that once when I was very young I confused theLeeds Mercury with the Western Morning News. But a Times leaderis entirely distinctive, and these words could have been taken fromnothing else. As it was done yesterday the strong probability wasthat we should find the words in yesterday’s issue.”
“So far as I can follow you, then, Mr. Holmes,” said Sir HenryBaskerville, “someone cut out this message with a scissors—”
“Nail-scissors,” said Holmes. “You can see that it was a veryshort-bladed scissors, since the cutter had to take two snips over‘keep away. ”
“That is so. Someone, then, cut out the message with a pair ofshort-bladed scissors, pasted it with paste—”
“Gum,” said Holmes.
“With gum on to the paper. But I want to know why the word‘moor’ should have been written?”
“Because he could not find it in print. The other words were all simpleand might be found in any issue, but ‘moor’ would be less common.”
“Why, of course, that would explain it. Have you read anythingelse in this message, Mr. Holmes?”
“There are one or two indications, and yet the utmost painshave been taken to remove all clues. The address, you observeis printed in rough characters. But the Times is a paper whichis seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated.
We may take it, therefore, that the letter was composed by aneducated man who wished to pose as an uneducated one, andhis effort to conceal his own writing suggests that that writingmight be known, or come to be known, by you. Again, you willobserve that the words are not gummed on in an accurate line,but that some are much higher than others. ‘Life,’ for example isquite out of its proper place. That may point to carelessness orit may point to agitation and hurry upon the part of the cutter.
On the whole I incline to the latter view, since the matter wasevidently important, and it is unlikely that the composer ofsuch a letter would be careless. If he were in a hurry it opens upthe interesting question why he should be in a hurry, since anyletter posted up to early morning would reach Sir Henry before hewould leave his hotel. Did the composer fear an interruption—andfrom whom?”
“We are coming now rather into the region of guesswork,” saidDr. Mortimer.
“Say, rather, into the region where we balance probabilities andchoose the most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination,but we have always some material basis on which to start ourspeculation. Now, you would call it a guess, no doubt, but I amalmost certain that this address has been written in a hotel.”
“How in the world can you say that?”
“If you examine it carefully you will see that both the pen andthe ink have given the writer trouble. The pen has spluttered twicein a single word, and has run dry three times in a short address,showing that there was very little ink in the bottle. Now, a privatepen or ink-bottle is seldom allowed to be in such a state, and thecombination of the two must be quite rare. But you know thehotel ink and the hotel pen, where it is rare to get anything else.
Yes, I have very little hesitation in saying that could we examinethe waste-paper baskets of the hotels around Charing Cross untilwe found the remains of the mutilated Times leader we couldlay our hands straight upon the person who sent this singularmessage. Halloa! Halloa! What’s this?”
He was carefully examining the foolscap, upon which the wordswere pasted, holding it only an inch or two from his eyes.
“Well?”
“Nothing,” said he, throwing it down. “It is a blank half-sheet ofpaper, without even a water-mark upon it. I think we have drawnas much as we can from this curious letter; and now, Sir Henry, hasanything else of interest happened to you since you have been inLondon?”
“Why, no, Mr. Holmes. I think not.”
“You have not observed anyone follow or watch you?”
“I seem to have walked right into the thick of a dime novel,”
said our visitor. “Why in thunder should anyone follow or watchme?”
“We are coming to that. You have nothing else to report to usbefore we go into this matter?”
“Well, it depends upon what you think worth reporting.”
“I think anything out of the ordinary routine of life well worthreporting.”
Sir Henry smiled.
“I don’t know much of British life yet, for I have spent nearly allmy time in the States and in Canada. But I hope that to lose oneof your boots is not part of the ordinary routine of life over here.”
“You have lost one of your boots?”
“My dear sir,” cried Dr. Mortimer, “it is only mislaid. You willfind it when you return to the hotel. What is the use of troublingMr. Holmes with trifles of this kind?”
“Well, he asked me for anything outside the ordinary routine.”
“Exactly,” said Holmes, “however foolish the incident may seem.
You have lost one of your boots, you say?”