Mexico weekly ledger., 1894-01-04

right scent. They lay all the evidence
before me, and ! am generally able, by
the help of my knowledge of the his
There is a strong family resemblance
about misdeeds, and if you have all the
details of a thousand at your finger
ends, it is odd il you can't unravel the
Thousand and first. Lestrade is a we'll
known detective. He got himself into
a fog recently over a forgery case, and
that was what brought him here"
"And these other people?"
s'They are mostly sent out by private
inquiry agencies. They are all people
who are in trouble about something,
and want a little enlightening. I
listen to their story, they listen to my
comments, and then / pocket my fee."
"But do you mean to say" / said,
'sthat without leaving your o you
can unravel some knot which other
men can make nothing of, although
they have seen every detail for them
selves?"
''Quite so. l have a kind of intui-
ton that way. Now and again a case
turns up which is a little more COM
pick. Then / have to hustle about and
see things with my own eyes. You
see, I have a lot of special knowledge
which I apply to the problem, and
which facilitates matters wonderfully.
Those rules of deduction laid down in
that article which aroused your scorn
are invaluable to me in practical work.
Observation with me is second nature.
You appeared to be surprised when I
told you, on our first nesting, that you
had come from Afghanistan."
"You were told, no doubt"
"Nothing of the sort. l knew you
came from Afghanistan. From long
habit the train of thought ran so swift
ly through my mind that 1 arrived at
the conclusion without being conscious
of intermediate steps. There were
snch steps, however. The train of
reasoning ran: Here is a gentleman
of a medical type, but with the air of a
military man. Clearly an army doc
tor, then. He has just come from the
! tropics, for his face is dark, and that
is. not the natural tint of his skin, for
| his wrists are fair. He has undergone
hardship and sickness, as his haggard
face says clearly. His left arm has
and unnatural Where in the
tropics could an English army doctor
have seen much hardship and got his
arm wounded? Clearly in Afghanis-
TAM The whole train of thought did
not occupy a second. / then remarked
! that you came from Afghanistan, and
| you were astonished."
sit is simple enough as you explain
| it," l said, smiling. you remind me
| of Edgar Allan Poe's tDupin.' 1 had
! no idea that such individuals did exist
outside of stories"
Sherlock Holmes rose and lit his
pipe. "No doubt you think that you
are cornplimenting me in comparing
me to Dupin," he observed. Now, in
my opinion, Dupin was a very inferior
fellow. That trick of his of breaking
in on his friends thoughts with an
apropos remark after a quarter of an
hours silence is really very snowy and
superficial. He had some analytical
genius, no doubt; but he was by nc
means such a phenomenon as Poe ap.
peared to imagine"
"Have you read Gaboriau's works?'
/ asked. Does Lecoq come up to youI
idea of a detective?'
Sherlock Holmes shifted s~ardonically.
"Lecoq was a miserable bungler," he
said, in an angry voice; she had only
one thing to recommend him, and that
was his energy. That book made me
positively i'll. The question was how
to identify an unknown prisoner. ]
could have done it in twenty-foui
hours. Lecoq took six months or so
It might be made a textbook for de
teetives to teach them what to avoid.
felt rather indignant at having two
characters whom | had admired treat
ed in this cavalier style. I walked oyel