“No, I don’t think I have anything rarer than a Crown Derby tea-set.”
“That would hardly justify all this mystery. Besides, why should they not openly state what they want? If they covet your tea-set, they can surely offer a price for it without buying you out, lock, stock, and barrel. No, as I read it, there is something which you do not know that you have, and which you would not give up if you did know.”
“That is how I read it,” said I.
“Dr. Watson agrees, so that settles it.”
“Well, Mr. Holmes, what can it be?”
“Let us see whether by this purely mental analysis we can get it to a finer point. You have been in this house a year.”
“Nearly two.”
“All the better. During this long period no one wants anything from you. Now suddenly within three or four days you have urgent demands. W
