Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved1 upon it, with the date "1884." It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner2 used to carry -- dignified3, solid, and reassuring4.
"Well, Watson, what do you make of it?"
Holmes was sitting with his back to me, and I had given him no sign of my occupation.
"How did you know what I was doing? I believe you have eyes in the back of your head."
"I have, at least, a well-polished, silver-plated coffee-pot in front of me," said he. "But, tell me, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's stick? Since we have been so unfortunate as to miss him and have no notion of his errand, this accidental souvenir becomes of importance. Let me hear you reconstruct the man by an examination of it."
"I think," said I, following as far as I could the methods of my companion, "that Dr. Mortimer is a successful, elderly medical man, well-esteemed since those who know him give him this mark of their appreciation5."
"Good!" said Holmes. "Excellent!"
"I think also that the probability is in favour of his being a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot."
"Why so?"
"Because this stick, though originally a very handsome one has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carrying it. The thick-iron ferrule is worn down, so it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it."
"Perfectly6 sound!" said Holmes.
"And then again, there is the 'friends of the C.C.H.' I should guess that to be the Something Hunt, the local hunt to whose members he has possibly given some surgical7 assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in return."
"Really, Watson, you excel yourself," said Holmes, pushing back his chair and lighting8 a cigarette. "I am bound to say that in all the accounts which you have been so good as to give of my own small achievements you have habitually9 underrated your own abilities. It may be that you are not yourself luminous10, but you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable11 power of stimulating12 it. I confess, my dear fellow, that I am very much in your debt."
He had never said as much before, and I must admit that his words gave me keen pleasure, for I had often been piqued13 by his indifference14 to my admiration15 and to the attempts which I had made to give publicity16 to his methods. I was proud, too, to think that I had so far mastered his system as to apply it in a way which earned his approval. He now took the stick from my hands and examined it for a few minutes with his naked eyes. Then with an expression of interest he laid down his cigarette, and carrying the cane17 to the window, he looked over it again with a convex lens.
"Interesting, though elementary," said he as he returned to his favourite corner of the settee. "There are certainly one or two indications upon the stick. It gives us the basis for several deductions18."
"Has anything escaped me?" I asked with some selfimportance. "I trust that there is nothing of consequence which I have overlooked?"
"I am afraid, my dear Watson, that most of your conclusions were erroneous. When I said that you stimulated19 me I meant, to be frank, that in noting your fallacies I was occasionally guided towards the truth. Not that you are entirely20 wrong in this instance. The man is certainly a country practitioner. And he walks a good deal."
"Then I was right."
"To that extent."
"But that was all."
"No, no, my dear Watson, not all -- by no means all. I would suggest, for example, that a presentation to a doctor is more likely to come from a hospital than from a hunt, and that when the initials 'C.C.' are placed before that hospital the words 'Charing21 Cross' very naturally suggest themselves."
"You may be right."
"The probability lies in that direction. And if we take this as a working hypothesis we have a fresh basis from which to start our construction of this unknown visitor."
"Well, then, supposing that 'C.C.H.' does stand for 'Charing Cross Hospital,' what further inferences may we draw?"
"Do none suggest themselves? You know my methods. Apply them!"
"I can only think of the obvious conclusion that the man has practised in town before going to the country."
"I think that we might venture a little farther than this. Look at it in this light. On what occasion would it be most probable that such a presentation would be made? When would his friends unite to give him a pledge of their good will? Obviously at the moment when Dr. Mortimer withdrew from the service of the hospital in order to start in practice for himself. We know there has been a presentation. We believe there has been a change from a town hospital to a country practice. Is it, then, stretching our inference too far to say that the presentation was on the occasion of the change?"
"It certainly seems probable."
"Now, you will observe that he could not have been on the staff of ohe hospital, since only a man well-established in a London practice could hold such a position, and such a one would not drift into the country. What was he, then? If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff he could only have been a house-surpeon or a house-physician -- little more than a senior student. And he left five years ago -- the date is on the stick. So your grave, middle-aged22 family practitioner vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson, and there emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable23, unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor of a favourite dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a terrier and smaller than a mastiff."
I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his settee and blew little wavering rings of smoke up to the ceiling.
"As to the latter part, I have no means of checking you," said I, "but at least it is not difficult to find out a few particulars about the man's age and professional career." From my small medical shelf I took down the Medical Directory and turned up the name. There were several Mortimers, but only one who could be our visitor. I read his record aloud.
"Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor,
Devon. House-surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Charing
Cross Hospital. Winner of the Jackson prize for Compara
tive Pathology, with essay entitled 'Is Disease a Reversion?'
Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Soci
ety. Author of 'Some Freaks of Atavism' (Lancet 1882).
'Do We Progress?' (Journal of Psychology24, March, 1883).
Medical Officer for the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and
High Barrow."
"No mention of that local hunt, Watson," said Holmes with a mischievous25 smile, "but a country doctor, as you very astutely26 observed. I think that I am fairly justified27 in my inferences. As to the adjectives, I said, if I remember right, amiable, unambitious, and absent-minded. It is my experience that it is only an amiable man in this world who receives testimonials, only an unambitious one who abandons a London career for the country, and only an absent-minded one who leaves his stick and not his visiting-card after waiting an hour in your room."
"And the dog?"
"Has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being a heavy stick the dog has held it tightly by the middle, and the marks of his teeth are very plainly visible. The dog's jaw28, as shown in the space between these marks, is too broad in my opinion for a terrier and not broad enough for a mastiff. It may have been -- yes, by Jove, it is a curly-haired spaniel."
He had risen and paced the room as he spoke29. Now he halted in the recess30 of the window. There was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I glanced up in surprise.
"My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that?"
"For the very simple reason that I see the dog himself on our very door-step, and there is the ring of its owner. Don't move, I beg you, Watson. He is a professional brother of yours, and your presence may be of assistance to me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill. What does Dr. James Mortimer, the man of science, ask of Sherlock Holmes, the specialist in crime? Come in!"
The appearance of our visitor was a surprise to me, since I had expected a typical country practitioner. He was a very tall, thin man, with a long nose like a beak31, which jutted32 out between two keen, gray eyes, set closely together and sparkling brightly from behind a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was clad in a professional but rather slovenly33 fashion, for his frock-coat was dingy34 and his trousers frayed35. Though young, his long back was already bowed, and he walked with a forward thrust of his head and a general air of peering benevolence36. As he entered his eyes fell upon the stick in Holmes's hand, and he ran towards it with an exclamation37 of joy. "I am so very glad," said he. "I was not sure whether I had left it here or in the Shipping38 Office. I would not lose that stick for the world."
"A presentation, I see," said Holmes.
"Yes, sir."
"From Charing Cross Hospital?"
"From one or two friends there on the occasion of my marriage."
"Dear, dear, that's bad!" said Holmes, shaking his head.
Dr. Mortimer blinked through his glasses in mild astonishment39.
"Why was it bad?"
"Only that you have disarranged our little deductions. Your marriage, you say?"
"Yes, sir. I married, and so left the hospital, and with it all hopes of a consulting practice. It was necessary to make a home of my own."
"Come, come, we are not so far wrong, after all," said Holmes. "And now, Dr. James Mortimer --"
"Mister, sir, Mister -- a humble40 M.R.C.S."
"And a man of precise mind, evidently."
"A dabbler41 in science, Mr. Holmes, a picker up of shells on the shores of the great unknown ocean. I presume that it is Mr. Sherlock Holmes whom I am addressing and not --"
"No, this is my friend Dr. Watson."
"Glad to meet you, sir. I have heard your name mentioned in connection with that of your friend. You interest me very much, Mr. Holmes. I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull42 or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure43? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament44 to any anthropological45 museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome46, but I confess that I covet47 your skull."
Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor into a chair. "You are an enthusiast48 in your line of thought, I perceive, sir, as I am in mine," said he. "I observe from your forefinger49 that you make your own cigarettes. Have no hesitation50 in lighting one."
The man drew out paper and tobacco and twirled the one up in the other with surprising dexterity51. He had long, quivering fingers as agile52 and restless as the antennae53 of an insect.
Holmes was silent, but his little darting54 glances showed me the interest which he took in our curious companion.
"I presume, sir," said he at last, "that it was not merely for the purpose of examining my skull that you have done me the honour to call here last night and again to-day?"
"No, sir, no; though I am happy to have had the opportunity of doing that as well. I came to you, Mr. Holmes, because I recognized that I am myself an unpractical man and because I am suddenly confronted with a most serious and extraordinary problem. Recognizing, as I do, that you are the second highest expert in Europe --"
"Indeed, sir! May I inquire who has the honour to be the first?" asked Holmes with some asperity55.
"To the man of precisely56 scientific mind the work of Monsieur Bertillon must always appeal strongly."
"Then had you not better consult him?"
"I said, sir, to the precisely scientific mind. But as a practical man of affairs it is acknowledged that you stand alone. I trust, sir, that I have not inadvertently --"
"Just a little," said Holmes. "I think, Dr. Mortimer, you would do wisely if without more ado you would kindly57 tell me plainly what the exact nature of the problem is in which you demand my assistance."
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1
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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practitioner
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| n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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piqued
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| v.伤害…的自尊心( pique的过去式和过去分词 )；激起（好奇心） | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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16
publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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17
cane
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| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
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18
deductions
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| 扣除( deduction的名词复数 )； 结论； 扣除的量； 推演 | |
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stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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21
charing
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| n.炭化v.把…烧成炭，把…烧焦( char的现在分词 )；烧成炭，烧焦；做杂役女佣 | |
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22
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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24
psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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25
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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26
astutely
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| adv.敏锐地；精明地；敏捷地；伶俐地 | |
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27
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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29
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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31
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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32
jutted
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| v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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33
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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dingy
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| adj.昏暗的，肮脏的 | |
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35
frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
benevolence
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| n.慈悲，捐助 | |
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exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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38
shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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40
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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41
dabbler
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| n. 戏水者, 业余家, 半玩半认真做的人 | |
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42
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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fissure
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| n.裂缝；裂伤 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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45
anthropological
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| adj.人类学的 | |
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fulsome
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| adj.可恶的，虚伪的，过分恭维的 | |
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47
covet
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| vt.垂涎；贪图(尤指属于他人的东西) | |
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48
enthusiast
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| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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49
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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50
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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51
dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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52
agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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53
antennae
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| n.天线；触角 | |
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54
darting
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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55
asperity
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| n.粗鲁，艰苦 | |
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56
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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