The Hound of the Baskervilles [antikvár]

Chapter IMR SHERLOCK HOLMESMr Sherlock Holmes 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. Just under the head was a broad silver band on which was engraved ' To James Mortimo', M.R.C.S.,^ from his friends of the C.C.H., 1884'.' Well, Watson, what do you make of our visitor's stick ? ' said Holmes. ' Since we have been so vmfortunate 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 so 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 appreciation.'' Good ! ' said Holmes.' I think also that he is probably a country practitioner who does a great deal of his visiting on foot.'' Why so ? '' Because this stick, originally a very handsome one, has been so knocked about that I can hardly imagine a town practitioner carr5dng it. The thick iron ferrule is worn down, SO it is evident that he has done a great amount of walking with it.'' Perfectly 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 surgical assistance, and which has made him a small presentation in return.'* Member of the Royal College of Surgeons.