THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

"Seven!" I answered.

"Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, 

I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not 

tell me that you intended to go into harness."

"Then, how do you know?"

"I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting 

yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and 

careless servant girl?"

"My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly 

have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true 

that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful 

mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you 

deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has 

given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it 

out."

He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands 

together.

"It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the 

inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, 

the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they 

have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round 

the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. 

Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile 

weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting 

specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a 

gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black 

mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge 

on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted 

his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce 

him to be an active member of the medical profession."

I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his 

process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I 

remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously 

simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each 

successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you 

explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good 

as yours."

"Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing 

himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. 

The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen 

the steps which lead up from the hall to this room."

"Frequently."

"How often?"

"Well, some hundreds of times."

"Then how many are there?"

"How many? I don't know."

"Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is 

just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, 

because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are 

interested in these little problems, and since you are good 

enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you 

may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, 

pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. 

"It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud."

The note was undated, and without either signature or address.

"There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight 

o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a 

matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of 

the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may 

safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which 

can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all 

quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do 

not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask."

"This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that 

it means?"

"I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before 

one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit 

theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. 

What do you deduce from it?"

I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was 

written.

"The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, 

endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper 

could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly 

strong and stiff."

"Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an 

English paper at all. Hold it up to the light."

I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a 

large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper.

"What do you make of that?" asked Holmes.

"The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather."