Mr. Sherlock Holmes

 Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up allrn night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon thern hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had leftrn behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a “Penang lawyer.” Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inchrn across. “To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of thern C.C.H.,” was engraved upon it, with the date “1884.” It was justrn such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used torn carry—dignified, solid, and reassuring.rnrn “Well, Watson, what do you make of it?”rnrn Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him norn sign of my occupation.rnrn “How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes inrn the back of your head.”rnrn “I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot inrn front of me,” said he. “But, tell me, Watson, what do you make ofrn our visitor’s stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to missrn him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenirrn becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by anrn examination of it.”rnrn “I think,” said I, following as far as I could the methods of myrn companion, “that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medicalrn man, well-esteemed since those who know him give him this mark ofrn their appreciation.”rnrn “Good!” said Holmes. “Excellent!”rnrn “I think also that the probability is in favour of his being arn country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting onrn foot.”rnrn “Why so?”rnrn “Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one hasrn been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a townrn practitioner carrying it. The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, sorn it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking withrn it.”rnrn “Perfectly sound!” said Holmes.rnrn “And then again, there is the ‘friends of the C.C.H.’ I shouldrn guess that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whosern members he has possibly given some surgical assistance, and whichrn has made him a small presentation in return.”rnrn “Really, Watson, you excel yourself,” said Holmes, pushing backrn his chair and lighting a cigarette. “I am bound to say that inrn all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my ownrn small achievements you have habitually underrated your ownrn abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but yourn are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing geniusrn have a remarkable power of stimulating it. I confess, my dearrn fellow, that I am very much in your debt.”rnrn He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his wordsrn gave me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued by hisrn indifference to my admiration and to the attempts which I hadrn made to give publicity to his methods. I was proud, too, to thinkrn that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a wayrn which earned his approval. He now took the stick from my handsrn and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then withrn an expression of interest he laid down his cigarette, andrn carrying the cane to the window, he looked over it again with arn convex lens.rnrn “Interesting, though elementary,” said he as he returned to hisrn favourite corner of the settee. “There are certainly one or tworn indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for severalrn deductions.”rnrn “Has anything escaped me?” I asked with some self-importance. “Irn trust that there is nothing of consequence which I havern overlooked?”rnrn “I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions werern erroneous. When I said that you stimulated me I meant, to bern frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guidedrn towards the truth. Not that you are entirely wrong in thisrn instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner. And hern walks a good deal.”rnrn “Then I was right.”rnrn “To that extent.”rnrn “But that was all.”rnrn “No, no, my dear Watson, not all—by no means all. I wouldrn suggest, for example, that a presentation to a doctor is morern likely to come from a hospital than from a hunt, and that whenrn the initials ‘C.C.’ are placed before that hospital the wordsrn ‘Charing Cross’ very naturally suggest themselves.”rnrn “You may be right.”rnrn “The probability lies in that direction. And if we take this as arn working hypothesis we have a fresh basis from which to start ourrn construction of this unknown visitor.”rnrn “Well, then, supposing that ‘C.C.H.’ does stand for ‘Charingrn Cross Hospital,’ what further inferences may we draw?”rnrn “Do none suggest themselves? You know my methods. Apply them!”rnrn “I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the man hasrn practised in town before going to the country.”rnrn “I think that we might venture a little farther than this. Lookrn at it in this light. On what occasion would it be most probablern that such a presentation would be made? When would his friendsrn unite to give him a pledge of their good will? Obviously at thern moment when Dr. Mortimer withdrew from the service of thern hospital in order to start a practice for himself. We know therern has been a presentation. We believe there has been a change fromrn a town hospital to a country practice. Is it, then, stretchingrn our inference too far to say that the presentation was on thern occasion of the change?”rnrn “It certainly seems probable.”rnrn “Now, you will observe that he could not have been on the _staff_rn of the hospital, since only a man well-established in a Londonrn practice could hold such a position, and such a one would notrn drift into the country. What was he, then? If he was in thern hospital and yet not on the staff he could only have been arn house-surgeon or a house-physician—little more than a seniorrn student. And he left five years ago—the date is on the stick. Sorn your grave, middle-aged family practitioner vanishes into thinrn air, my dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow underrn thirty, amiable, unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor ofrn a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being largerrn than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff.”rnrn I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in hisrn settee and blew little wavering rings of smoke up to the ceiling.rnrn “As to the latter part, I have no means of checking you,” said I, “but at least it is not difficult to find out a few particularsrn about the man’s age and professional career.” From my smallrn medical shelf I took down the Medical Directory and turned up thern name. There were several Mortimers, but only one who could be ourrn visitor. I read his record aloud.rnrn “Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon. House-surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital. Winner of the Jackson prize for Comparative Pathology, withrn essay entitled ‘Is Disease a Reversion?’ Corresponding memberrn of the Swedish Pathological Society. Author of ‘Some Freaks ofrn Atavism’ (_Lancet_ 1882). ‘Do We Progress?’ (_Journal ofrn Psychology_, March, 1883). Medical Officer for the parishes ofrn Grimpen, Thorsley, and High Barrow.”rnrn “No mention of that local hunt, Watson,” said Holmes with arn mischievous smile, “but a country doctor, as you very astutelyrn observed. I think that I am fairly justified in my inferences. Asrn to the adjectives, I said, if I remember right, amiable, unambitious, and absent-minded. It is my experience that it isrn only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials, onlyrn an unambitious one who abandons a London career for the country, and only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick and not hisrn visiting-card after waiting an hour in your room.”rnrn “And the dog?”rnrn “Has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being a heavy stick the dog has held it tightly by the middle, and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible. The dog’srn jaw, as shown in the space between these marks, is too broad inrn my opinion for a terrier and not broad enough for a mastiff. Itrn may have been—yes, by Jove, it _is_ a curly-haired spaniel.”rnrn He had risen and paced the room as he spoke. Now he halted in thern recess of the window. There was such a ring of conviction in hisrn voice that I glanced up in surprise.rnrn “My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that?”rnrn “For the very simple reason that I see the dog himself on ourrn very door-step, and there is the ring of its owner. Don’t move, Irn beg you, Watson. He is a professional brother of yours, and yourrn presence may be of assistance to me. Now is the dramatic momentrn of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which isrn walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill. What does Dr. James Mortimer, the man of science, ask of Sherlockrn Holmes, the specialist in crime? Come in!”rnrn The appearance of our visitor was a surprise to me, since I hadrn expected a typical country practitioner. He was a very tall, thinrn man, with a long nose like a beak, which jutted out between tworn keen, grey eyes, set closely together and sparkling brightly fromrn behind a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was clad in arn professional but rather slovenly fashion, for his frock-coat wasrn dingy and his trousers frayed. Though young, his long back wasrn already bowed, and he walked with a forward thrust of his headrn and a general air of peering benevolence. As he entered his eyesrn fell upon the stick in Holmes’s hand, and he ran towards it withrn an exclamation of joy. “I am so very glad,” said he. “I was notrn sure whether I had left it here or in the Shipping Office. Irn would not lose that stick for the world.”rnrn “A presentation, I see,” said Holmes.rnrn “Yes, sir.”rnrn “From Charing Cross Hospital?”rnrn “From one or two friends there on the occasion of my marriage.”rnrn “Dear, dear, that’s bad!” said Holmes, shaking his head.rnrn Dr. Mortimer blinked through his glasses in mild astonishment. “Why was it bad?”rnrn “Only that you have disarranged our little deductions. Yourrn marriage, you say?”rnrn “Yes, sir. I married, and so left the hospital, and with it allrn hopes of a consulting practice. It was necessary to make a homern of my own.”rnrn “Come, come, we are not so far wrong, after all,” said Holmes. “And now, Dr. James Mortimer—”rnrn “Mister, sir, Mister—a humble M.R.C.S.”rnrn “And a man of precise mind, evidently.”rnrn “A dabbler in science, Mr. Holmes, a picker up of shells on thern shores of the great unknown ocean. I presume that it is Mr. Sherlock Holmes whom I am addressing and not—”rnrn “No, this is my friend Dr. Watson.”rnrn “Glad to meet you, sir. I have heard your name mentioned inrn connection with that of your friend. You interest me very much, Mr. Holmes. I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull orrn such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have anyrn objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? Arn cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, wouldrn be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not myrn intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”rnrn Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor into a chair. “You arern an enthusiast in your line of thought, I perceive, sir, as I amrn in mine,” said he. “I observe from your forefinger that you makern your own cigarettes. Have no hesitation in lighting one.”rnrn The man drew out paper and tobacco and twirled the one up in thern other with surprising dexterity. He had long, quivering fingersrn as agile and restless as the antennæ of an insect.rnrn Holmes was silent, but his little darting glances showed me thern interest which he took in our curious companion. “I presume, sir,” said he at last, “that it was not merely for the purpose ofrn examining my skull that you have done me the honour to call herern last night and again today?”rnrn “No, sir, no; though I am happy to have had the opportunity ofrn doing that as well. I came to you, Mr. Holmes, because Irn recognized that I am myself an unpractical man and because I amrn suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinaryrn problem. Recognizing, as I do, that you are the second highestrn expert in Europe—”rnrn “Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?” asked Holmes with some asperity.rnrn “To the man of precisely scientific mind the work of Monsieurrn Bertillon must always appeal strongly.”rnrn “Then had you not better consult him?”rnrn “I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind. But as arn practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stand alone. I trust, sir, that I have not inadvertently—”rnrn “Just a little,” said Holmes. “I think, Dr. Mortimer, you wouldrn do wisely if without more ado you would kindly tell me plainlyrn what the exact nature of the problem is in which you demand myrn assistance.”