"
"Nothing wonderful in that, surely?"
"Not in reason, sir. But this is out of all reason. He has been
there for ten days, and neither Mr. Warren, nor I, nor the girl
has once set eyes upon him. We can hear that quick step of his
pacing up and down, up and down, night, morning, and noon; but
except on that first night he had never once gone out of the
house."
"Oh, he went out the first night, did he?"
"Yes, sir, and returned very late--after we were all in bed. He
told me after he had taken the rooms that he would do so and
asked me not to bar the door. I heard him come up the stair
after midnight."
"But his meals?"
"It was his particular direction that we should always, when he
rang, leave his meal upon a chair, outside his door. Then he
rings again when he has finished, and we take it down from the
same chair. If he wants anything else he prints it on a slip of
paper and leaves it."
"Prints it?"
"Yes, sir; prints it in pencil. Just the word, nothing more.
Here's the one I brought to show you--soap. Here's another--
match. This is one he left the first morning--daily gazette. I
leave that paper with his breakfast every morning."
"Dear me, Watson," said Homes, staring with great curiosity at
the slips of foolscap which the landlady had handed to him, "this
is certainly a little unusual. Seclusion I can understand; but
why print? Printing is a clumsy process.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25