"My dear Holmes!"
"I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I
remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination
served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial
evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout
in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example."
"But I have heard all that you have heard."
"Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which
serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some
years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich the
year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these cases—but,
hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! You will find an
extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are cigars in the
box."
The official detective was attir
