Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1894-11-15

rier which has been bad so long. amt
which the andlady wanted you to PCT
out of its pain yesterday. 4
l went down stairs and carried the
dog upstairs in my arms. its labOred
breathing and glazing eye showed that
it was not far from its end. Indeed.
it's snow-white m,lzZle proclaimed that
it had already exceeded the usual term
of canine existence. l placed it upon
a cushion on the rug.
II will now cut one of those pills in
two.' said Holmes. and drawing hts
pen-knife. he suited the action to the
word. "One-fourth we return into the
box for future purposes The other
half will place in this wine-glass. in
which is a teaspoonful of water You
perceive that our friend. the doctor, is
right and that it readily dissolves."
This may be very interesting" said
Lestrade, in the injured tone of one
who suspects that lie is being laughed
ut. Il car1lot see. however. what it
has to do with the death ct Mr.. Joseph
Stlngcr,On.
Patience. my friend. patience! You
will lind in time that it has every
thing to do with it. shall now add a
little milk to make the mixture pala-
table. and Oh presenting it 10 the dog
we will find that he laps it readily
enough"
AS he spoke lie turned the contents
of the wine glass into a saucer and
placed it i'll front of the terrier. who
speedily licked it dry. Sherlock
Holiness earnest demcanur had so far
convinced us that we all sat in silence.
watching the animal intenuy. aud ex-
pecting some startling effect. None
such appeared, however. The dog con-
tinued to lie stretched UPON the cush-
ion. breathing iii q labored wiz. but
apparently neither tllr better nor the
worse for it's ,lr;luclit.
Holmes had taken oui his watch,
and as minute followed minute without
result. an expression of the utmost
chagrin and disappointment appeared
upon his features He snawcl his
lip, drummed his fingers upon the ia
BILE, and showed every other symptom
of acute Impotence. So great was his
emotion that felt sincerely sorry for
him, while the two detectives smiled
derisively. by no means displeased ut
this check which he had met.
lit can't be a coincidence lie cried
at last springing up from his chair.
and pacing wildly up and down the
room; sit is impossible that it should
be a mere coincidence. The very pills
which l suspected in the case of Dreb-
Der are actually found after the death
of StangerSon. And yet they are inert
What can it mean? Surely my whole
chain Of reasoning cannot have been
false. 1t is impossible! And yet this
wretchc'l dog is non" the worse. All,
| have it! / have it," With perfect
Shrek of delight he rushed to the box,
cut the other pill in two. dissolved it,
added milk, and presented it to the ter
rier. The unfortunate creatures ton
que seemed hardly to have been mois-
tened in it before it gave convulsive
shiver in every limb, and lay as rigid
and lifeless as if it had been struck
by lightning.
Sherlock Holmes drew long breath
and wiped the perspiration from his
forehead. II should have more faith -
he said; Il ought to know by this time
that when fact appears to be opposed
to long train of deductions. it invaria-
bly, proves to be capable Of bearing
some other Interpretation. OF the two
pills in the box one was of the most
deadly poison and the other was entire
ly harmless. l ought to have known
that before [ ever saw the box at ALL"
This last statement appeared to me
to be so startling that l could hardly
believe that he was in his sober senses
There was the dead dog. however, to
prove that his conjecture had been cor
rect. 1t seemed to me that the mists
i'll my own mind were gradually clear
ing away. and l began to have IL dim,
IL,
"All this seems strange to YOU" con-
tlnued Holmes. because you failed at
the beginning Of the inquiry to grasp
the Importance of the single real clew
which was presented to you. l had the
good fortune to seize upon that. and
everything which has occurred since
then has served to confirm my original
suppositiDn. and, indeed. Was the losi-
cal sequcnc, Of it, Hence things which
have pcrplcXed you and made the case
more obscure have served to enlighten
me and to strengthen my conclusions.
1t isa mistake to confound strangeness
with mystery. The most commonplace
crime is often the most mysterious be-
cause it presents no new or sDecial
features from which deductions may be
drawn. This murder would have been
Infinitely more difficult to unravel had
the body of the victim been simply
found lying in the roadway without
any of those outre and sensational ac-
compartments which have rendered it
remarkable. These strange Details far
from making the case more difficult
have really had the effect of making it
less So"
Mr.. Grcgson who had listened to the
address with considerable Impotence,
could contain himself no longer. Look
here, Mr.. Sherlock Holiness he said,
1--WE are ready to acknowledge that
YOU are smart man. and that you
have your methods of working. We
want something more than mere
theory and preaching now though. 1t
is a case Of taking the man. l have
made my case out and it seems I was
wrong. Young Charpentier could not
have been engaged in this second af-
fair. Lestrade went after his man,
Stangersou. and it appears that he was
WRONG, too. You have thrown out
hints here. and hints there, and seem
TO kn0Wimore than we do. but the time
has cone when We feel that we have
., RIGHT tn ssk vnN STRAIGHT how rnuo1