The Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

and the other at the first, third, and fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry.’
    â€˜And what else?’ I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by my friend’s incisive reasoning.
    â€˜I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving home, but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had written in a hurry, and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised description of Mr Hosmer Angel?’
    I held the little printed slip to the light. ‘Missing,’ it said, ‘on the morning of the 14th, a gentleman named Hosmer Angel. About 5 ft 7 in in height; strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in the centre, bushy black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted glasses,slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing’, etc., etc.
    â€˜That will do,’ said Holmes. ‘As to the letters,’ he continued glancing over them, ‘they are very commonplace. Absolutely no clue in them to Mr Angel, save that he quotes Balzac 11 once. There is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike you.’
    â€˜They are typewritten,’ I remarked.
    â€˜Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the neat little “Hosmer Angel” at the bottom. There is a date you see, but no superscription, except Leadenhall Street, which is rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive – in fact, we may call it conclusive.’
    â€˜Of what?’
    â€˜My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it bears upon the case?’
    â€˜I cannot say that I do, unless it were that he wished to be able to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were instituted.’
    â€˜No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the other is to the young lady’s stepfather, Mr Windibank, asking him whether he could meet us here at six o’clock tomorrow evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem upon the shelf for the interim.’
    I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend’s subtle powers of reasoning, and extraordinary energy in action, that I felt that he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had been called upon to fathom. Only once had I known him to fail, in the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler photograph, but when I looked back to the weird business of the Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle indeed which he could not unravel.
    I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Sutherland.
    A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six