The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-02-23
ToDAY's INsTAI;MFyNT

Sherlock Holmes was as good as l11ssword, for about one o'clock he re- : joined us in the ColoneFs smoking room. He was accompanied by a little elderly, gentleman, who was intro duced to ne as the MT. Acton whose !. house had been the scene of the origi- nal burglary.
 CT wished MT Acton to be present while demonstrated this small mat {: ter to you," said Holmes for it is natural that he should take a keen my dear Colonel, that you must re- { gret the hour that you took in such : a stormy petrel as I am" @on the contrary" answered the greatest privilege to have been per mitted to study your methods of .Sworking. I confess that they quite surpass my expectations, and that I am utterly unable to account for your result. I have not yet seen the vestge of a. clue.''
 "I am afraid that my explanation may disilluSion you, but it has al- my methods. either from my friend Watson or from any one who might take an intelligent interest in them. But, first, as I am rather shaken by the knocking about which had in the dressing-roon,, I think that I shall help myself to a dash of your brandy. Colonel. My strength has been rather tried of late.''
 'sI trust you had no more of those nervous attacks"
 Sherlock Holmes laughed heartily. 'fWe will come to that in it's turn. ' said he. "I 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 m terrupt me if there is any inference which is not perfectly clear to you.
 ''It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissatisfied instead of being concentrated. Now. in this case there was not the slightest doubt in my mind from the first that the key of xtf1e whole matter must be looked for in the scrap of paper 1n the dead mans hand.
 ssBefore going into this. I would draw your attention to- the fact that, if Alec Cunningham's narrative was shooting William Kirwan, had in stantly fled, then it obviously could not be he who tore the paper from the dead mans hand. But if it was ningham himself, for by the time that the old man had descended several servants were upon the scene The point is a. simple one, but the Inspec- for had overlooked it because he had started with the SuppoSition that these county magnateS had had nothing to do with the matter. Now,1 make point of never having any prejudfces. and Of following docileIy wherever fact may lead me and so in the very first stage of the investigation, I found myself looking a little askance at the part which had been played by MT Alec Cunningham
 ~And now I made a, very careful examination of the corner of paper -vs>ich the Inspector had submitted to us. It was at once clear to me that formed part of a very remarkable document Here it is Do you not now observe something very sugges- tive about it ?'
 the Colonel
 t-My dear sir,'' cried Holmes, 'sthere cannot be the least doubt in the world that it has been written by two per sons doing alternate words. When I draw your attention to the strong t's of at and to-, and ask you to com pare them with the weak ones of souarter' and -twelve,' you will in stant1y recognize the fact. A very brief analysis of these four words would enable you to say with the nit most confidence that the learn and