The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-02-01
CHAPTER VII.
utlN EANEIITkIhN


upon the door Of the cell, with placid
smile upon his face, as though he had
been able in his dying moments to
look back upon useful life and ON
work well done,
"Gregson and Lestrade will be wild
about his death, Holmes remarked, as
We chatted it over next evening.
Where will their grand advertisement
be now
al don't see that they had very much
to do with his capture" answered.
What you do in this world is mat
ter Of no consequence" returned my
companion, bitterly. "The question is
what can you make people believe that
you have done? Never mind, " he con-
tinued. more brightly, after pause, IL
would not have missed the investiga-
tion for anything. There has been no
better case within my recollection
Simple rs it was, there were several
most instructive points about it,
simple" ejaeulated.
"Well, really, it can hardly be de-
scribed as otherwise said Sherlock
Holmes, smiling at my surprise. The
proof Of its intrinsic simplicity is that
without any help, save few very or
dinary deductions, | was able to lay
my hand upon the criminal within
three days
That is true" said |.
IL have already explained to you
that what is out of the common is
usually u guide rather than hin
drange. In solving d problem of this
sort, the grand thing is to be able to
reason backward. That Is very use
ful accomplishment and very easy
one, but people do not practice it
much. In the everyday affairs Of life
it is more useful to reason forward,
and 50 the other comes to be neglected.
There are fifty who can reason syn
thetically for one. who can reason an
slytically."
Il confess" said l, that l do not
quite follow YOU
II hardly expected that you would.
Let me see if | can make it clear. Most
people, if you describe train of events
to them, will tell you what the result
would be. They can put those events
together in their minds, and argue
from them that something will come
to pass. There are few people, how
ever, who, if you told them a result,
would be able to evolve from their own
inner consciousness what the steps
were which led up to that result This
power IS what / mean when / talk Of
reasoning backward, or analytically."
If understand, said I.
"NOw, this was case in which you
were given the result and. had to find
eyerything else for yourself Now, let
me endeavor to show you the different
steps in my reasoning. To begin at
the beginning: approached the house,
as you know, on foot and with my
mind entirely free from all impress
sions naturally begas by examin-
ing the roadway, and there, as have
already explained to you, saw clearly
the marks OF cab, which, ascer-
tanned by inquiry must have been
there during the night. j satisfied
myself that it was cab and not pri-
vate carriage by the narrow gauge Of
the wheels. The ordinary London
growler Is considerably less wide than
gentleman's brougham.
This was the first point gained /
then walked slowly down the garden
path, which happened 10 be composed
of a clay soil, peculiarly suitable for
taking impressions. No doubt il ap
peared to you to be mere trampled
line OF slush, but TO my trained eyes
every mark upon its surface had u
meaning. There is no branch Of de-
tective science which is SO important
and so much neglected as the art Of
tracing footsteps. Happily, have al
ways laid great stress upon it, and
much practice has made it second
nature to Inc. saw the heavy foot.
marks Of the constables, but saw
also the tracks Of the two men who
had first passed through the garden
II was easy TO tell that they had been
before the others, because In places
their marks had been entirely obliter-
ated by the others coming upon the
top OF them. In this way my second
link was formed, which told me that
! the nocturnal visitors were two In
number, one remarkable for his height
las calculated from the length of his
stride) and the other fashionably
dressed to judge from the small and
elegant impression left by his boots.
"On entering the house this last In.
ference was confirmed. My well-booted
man lay before me. The tall one, then,
had done the murder, II murder there
was There was no wound upon the
dead mans person, but the agitated
expression upon his face assured me
that he had foreseen his fate before It
came upon him. Men who die from
heart disease or any sudden natural
cause never by any chance exhibit agi.
.ation upon their features. Having
shifted the dead mans lips, detected
d slightly sour smell, and came to the
conclusion that he had had poison
forced upon him. Again / argued
that IL had been forced upon him,
from the hatred and fear en-
pressed upon his face. by the
method of exclusion had arrived at
this result, for no other hypothesis
would meet the facts. Donot imagine
! that II was very unheard-of idea.