Condon globe. (Condon, Gilliam Co., Or.) 189?-1919, 1902-08-21
CHAPTER w.

/ led me to the nearest telegraph once,
when he dispatched long telegram.
He then hailed q cab and ordered the
driver to take us to the address given
us by Lestrade.
There's nothing like first-hand evil
dence," he remarked: ''as a matter of
fact, my mind Is entirely made up up
on the case, but still We may as well
learn all that is to be learned"
you amaze me. Holmes" said l.
Surely you are not as sure as you pre-
tend to be OF all those particulars
which you gave"
There is no room for mistake" he
answered. ''The very first thing which
II observed on arriving there was that
q cab had made two ruts with its
wheels close to the curb. Now, up to
last night we have had no rain for
week, so that those wheels, which left
such deep impression, must have
been made there during the night
There were the marks OF the horses
hoofs, too, the outline of one Of which
was far more clearly cut than that of
the other three, showing that there
was q new shoe. Since the cab was
there after the rain began. and was
not there at any time during the morn
ing-T have Gregson's word for that
1t follows that ii must have been there
during the night, and, therefore, that
it brought those two individuals to the
house."
"That seems simple enough" said I;
''but how about the other mans
heights"
why, the height of man. in nine
cases out of ten can be told from the
length OF his stride. 1t is q simple cal
culation enough, though there is no
use my boring you with figures.
this fellows stride, both on the clay
outside and the dust within. Then
had a way of checking my calcula-
tions. When a man writes on wall,
his instinct leads him to write about
the level of his own eyes. Now, that
writing was Just over six feet from
the ground. 1t was child's play"
"And his age?" l asked.
well. If a man can stride four and
half feet without the smallest effort.
he can't be quite in the sere and yel-
low. That was the breadth of pud-
die on the garden walk which he had
evidently walked across. Patent
leather boots had gone around and
square toes had hoped over. There
is no mystery about it at all. am
simply applying to ordinary life a few
CT those precepts of observation and
deduction which I advocated in that
article. Is there anything else, that
puzzles you?"
"The finger nails and the Trichinop-
oly," I suggested.
'The writing on the wall was done
with mans forefnger dipped in
blood. My glass allowed me to OBJ
serve that the plaster was slightly
scratched in doing it, which would not
have been the case IL the mans nail
had been trimmed. l gathered up
some scattered ash from the floor. 1t
was dark in color and fiaky-such 9n
ash as is only made by Trichonopoly.
have made a special study of cigar
ashes-in fact, have written a mono
graph upon the subject. | flatter my
self that can distinguish at a glance
the ash Of any known brand of cigar
or of tobacco. It is in just such de-
tails that the skilled detective differs
from the Gregson and Lestrade type" /"
"And the fiorid face?" I asked.
"Ah. that was more daring shot,
though l have no doubt that was
right You must not ask me that at
the present state of the affair"
passed my hand over my brow.
my head is In a whirl," remarked; /;
"the more one thinks of it, the more
mysterious it grows. How came these
two men-if there were two men-in-
to an empty house? What has become
of the cabman who drove them? How
could one man compel another to take
poison? Where did the blood come
from? What was the object of the
murderer, since robbery had no part
In It? How came the woman's ring
there? Above all, why should the Sec
ond man write up the German word
Rache before decamping? confess
that l cannot see any possible way Of
reconciling all these facts"
My companion smiled approvingly.
"You sum up the difficulties of the
situation succinctly and we'll" he said.
There is much that is still obscure,
though have quite made up my mind
on the main facts. AS to poor Le-
. strade's discovery, 1t was simply a
blind intended to put the police upon
wrong track, by suggesting social
ism and secret societies. It was
not done by q German. The A,
If you noticed, was printed some
what after the German fashion.
Now real German invariably prints
in the Latin character, so that we may
safely say that this was not written by
one, but by clumsy imitator, who
cverdid his part. It was simply a
ruse, to divert inquiry into a wrong
channel. I'm not going to tell YOU
much more of the case, doctor. You
know a conjurer gets no credit when
once he has explained his trick, and
If I show you too much Of my method
Of working you will come to the con-
clusion that am very ordinary indi-
vidual after all"
II shall never do that" answered; !;
"you have brought detection as near
an exact science as 1t ever will be
brought In this world"
My companion flushed up with pleas
ure at my words and the earnest way
in which | uttered them. | had al
ready observed that he was as sensi-
tive to flattery on the score Of his art
as any girl could be Of her beauty.
'Tll tell you one other thing" he
said. "Patentleathers and Square
toes came In the same cab and they
walked down the pathway together as
friendly as possible-arm in arm, in
all probability. When they got inside
. they walked up and down the room
or rather, Patent-leathers stood still
while Square-toes walked up and
, down. l could read all that in the
dust; and / could read that, as he
walked, he grew more and more ex
cited. That is shown by the increased
length of his strides. He was talking
all the while, and working himself up
no doubt, into fury. Then the trag