The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-05-31

us In the colonel s smoking room. lie
was accompanied by a little elderly
gentleman, who was introduced to me
as the Mr.. Acton whose house had been
the scene Of the original burglary.
IT wished Mr.. Acton to be present
while I demonstrated this small matter
to you, said Holmes, for it is nat
ura1 that he should take keen inter-
est in the details. | am afraid, my
dear colonel, that you must regret the
hour that you took in such stormy
petrol as am.
Colonel oa tR Rar@ eoa ansgsrsS i The the
greatest privilege to have been permit
ted to study. your methods Of working.
confess that they quite surpass my ex-
pectations, and that | am utterly un-
able to account for your result. [ have
not yet seen the vestige Of a clue.o
II am afraid that my explanation
been my habit to hide none of my
methods, either from my friend Watson
or from any one who might take an
intelligent interest in them. But, first,
as am rather shaken by the knocking
about which had in the dressing room,
I think that I shall help myself to a
dash Of your brandy, colonel. Ny,
g trust you had no more Of those
| nervous attacks
Sherlock Holmes laughed heartily
GIVE will come to that in its turn,
said he. ~ will lay an account of
| the case before you in it's due order
showing you the various points which
guided me in my decision. Pray in
terrupt me if there is any inference
which is not perfectly clear to YOU.
the art of detection to be able to rec
ognize, out of number Of facts, which
are incidental and which vital. Other
wise your energy and attention must
| be dissipated instead of being concen
trated. Now, in this case there was
not the slightest doubt in my minc
from the first that the key Of the whole
of paper in the dead man IS hand.
"Before going into this, I would
draw your attention to the fact that
if Alec Cunningham's narrative wa
correct, and if the assailant, afte
shooting William Kirwan, had Instant,
fled, then it obviously could not be h,
who tore the paper from the dea!!
must have been Alec Cunningham him
| self, for by the time that the old MAJ
had descended, several servants wer
upon the scene. The point is simpl
one, but the inspector had overlooked
it because he had started with the sup
position that these county magnate
had had nothing to do: with the mat
ter. Now, I make point of neve
having C Yso any, prejudices, and Of follow
me, and SO, in the. very first stage o
the investigation, I found myself look
ing a little askance at the part whic
had been played by Mr.. Alec Cunning
ham. .t a
animation Of the corner OF Of paper per' Who &c
the Inspector had submitted to us. ]
was at once clear to me that it forme
part Of a very remarkable document
Here it is. Do you not now observ
something very suggestive about it9.
1t has very irregular look sal
my dear sir,'' cried Holmes
"there cannot be the least doubt 1
, the world that it has been written b
.. two persons doing alternate word
J When | draw your attention to tn
strong t IS, of att and 'to, and ask yo
totcompare them with the weak ones q
u quarter and twelve, you will il
sstanttly, recognize the hS fact: A yer
would enable you to say with the III
l. most confidence that the slearn' an
!, the maybe are written in the stronge
: hand, and the what , in the weaker
"By Jove,. it g as clear as day!
cried the colonel. "Why3 on cart
should two men write a letter in sue
, a fashion?' z,yea . s.,[.
"Obviously the business was ba
one, and one Of the men who distruste
: the other was determined that, wha
| everwas done, each should have an equ;
3 clear that the one who wrote the al
and to- was the ringleader."
!, How do you get at that - =
awe might deduce from the mel
character Of the one hand as compare
: with the other. But we have more a.
t sured reasons than that for supposin
7 it. If you examine this scrap with a
t tention you will come to the conclusio
that the man with the stronger han
e for the other to fiji up: These blank
. see that the second man had to squee,
i to fit his quarter in between the "a
l. and the Ito, showing that the latt,
were already written. The man wi
/ wrote all his words first is undoubted
shs Exc ha R7e cried NJ Mr. Acton Acton
d "But very superficial" said Holme
!: I'VE come now, however, to poi
a which is Of Importance. You may n
Uc Gu1G Uut ucuuCGlOu VI d Hill
! age from his writing is one which h;
: been brought to considerable accurat
s by experts. In normal cases one CO
e place a man in his true decade Wi
/ tolerable confidence. say normal case
e because ill-health and physical wea
I ness reproduce the signs Of old az
t even when the invalid is youth.
d this case, looking at the bold, stro,
Q hand of the one, and the rather broke
backed appearance of the other, whi
e still retains it's legibility altho the t
have begun to lose their crossings, '
can say that the one was a young m,
J. ana t me o1nei aayan Sear IN years VIII
e Excellent!' cried Mr.. Acton agai
r. HThere is further point, howeve
q which is subtler and Of greater int
est. There is something in comm'