"A hundred yards or so."
"At the point where the path passes through the gate you could surelypick up the tracks?"
"Unfortunately, the path was tiled at that point."
"Well, on the road itself?"
"No; it was all trodden into mire."
"Tut-tut! Well, then, these tracks upon the grass, were they coming orgoing?"
"It was impossible to say. There was never any outline."
"A large foot or a small?"
"You could not distinguish."
Holmes gave an ejaculation of impatience.
"It has been pouring rain and blowing a hurricane ever since," saidhe. "It will be harder to read now than that palimpsest. Well, well, itcan't be helped. What did you do, Hopkins, after you had made certainthat you had made certain of nothing?"
"I think I made certain of a good deal, Mr. Holmes. I knew that someonehad entered the house cautiously from without. I next examined thecorridor. It is lined with cocoanut matting and had taken noimpression of any kind. This brought me into the study itself. It is ascantily-furnished room. The main article is a large writing-table witha fixed bureau. This bureau consists of a double column of drawerswith a central small cupboard between them. The drawers were open, thecupboard locked. The drawers, it seems, were always open, and nothingof value was kept in them. There were some papers of importance in thecupboard, but there were no signs that this had been tampered with, andthe Professor assures me that nothing was missing. It is certain that norobbery has been committed.
"I come now to the body of the young man. It was found near the bureau,and just to the left of it, as marked upon that chart. The stab wason the right side of the neck and from behind forwards, so that it isalmost impossible that it could have been self-inflicted."
"Unless he fell upon the knife," said Holmes.
"Exactly. The idea crossed my mind. But we found the knife some feetaway from the body, so that seems impossible. Then, of course, there arethe man's own dying words. And, finally, there was this very importantpiece of evidence which was found clasped in the dead man's right hand."
From his pocket Stanley Hopkins drew a small paper packet. He unfoldedit and disclosed a golden pince-nez, with two broken ends of blacksilk cord dangling from the end of it. "Willoughby Smith had excellentsight," he added. "There can be no question that this was snatched fromthe face or the person of the assassin."
Sherlock Holmes took the glasses into his hand and examined them withthe utmost attention and interest. He held them on his nose, endeavouredto read through them, went to the window and stared up the street withthem, looked at them most minutely in the full light of the lamp, andfinally, with a chuckle, seated himself at the table and wrote a fewlines upon a sheet of paper, which he tossed across to Stanley Hopkins.
"That's the best I can do for you," said he. "It may prove to be of someuse."
The astonished detective read the note aloud. It ran as follows:--
"Wanted, a woman of good address, attired like a lady. She has aremarkably thick nose, with eyes which are set close upon either sideof it. She has a puckered forehead, a peering expression, and probablyrounded shoulders. There are indications that she has had recourse to anoptician at least twice during the last few months. As her glasses areof remarkable strength and as opticians are not very numerous, thereshould be no difficulty in tracing her."
Holmes smiled at the astonishment of Hopkins, which must have beenreflected upon my features.
"Surely my deductions are simplicity itself," said he. "It would bedifficult to name any articles which afford a finer field for inferencethan a pair of glasses, especially so remarkable a pair as these. Thatthey belong to a woman I infer from their delicacy, and also, of course,from the last words of the dying man. As to her being a person ofrefinement and well dressed, they are, as you perceive, handsomelymounted in solid gold, and it is inconceivable that anyone who wore suchglasses could be slatternly in other respects. You will find that theclips are too wide for your nose, showing that the lady's nose was verybroad at the base. This sort of nose is usually a short and coarse one,but there are
a sufficient number of exceptions to prevent me from beingdogmatic or from insisting upon this point in my description. My ownface is a narrow one, and yet I find that I cannot get my eyes into thecentre, or near the centre, of these glasses. Therefore the lady's eyesare set very near to the sides of the nose. You will perceive, Watson,that the glasses are concave and of unusual strength. A lady whosevision has been so extremely contracted all her life is sure to have thephysical characteristics of such vision, which are seen in the forehead,the eyelids, and the shoulders."
"Yes," I said, "I can follow each of your arguments. I confess, however,that I am unable to understand how you arrive at the double visit to theoptician."
Holmes took the glasses in his hand.
"You will perceive," he said, "that the clips are lined with tinybands of cork to soften the pressure upon the nose. One of these isdiscoloured and worn to some slight extent, but the other is new.Evidently one has fallen off and been replaced. I should judge that theolder of them has not been there more than a few months. Theyexactly correspond, so I gather that the lady went back to the sameestablishment for the second."
"By George, it's marvellous!" cried Hopkins, in an ecstasy ofadmiration. "To think that I had all that evidence in my hand andnever knew it! I had intended, however, to go the round of the Londonopticians."
"Of course you would. Meanwhile, have you anything more to tell us aboutthe case?"
"Nothing, Mr. Holmes. I think that you know as much as I donow--probably more. We have had inquiries made as to any stranger seenon the country roads or at the railway station. We have heard of none.What beats me is the utter want of all object in the crime. Not a ghostof a motive can anyone suggest."
"Ah! there I am not in a position to help you. But I suppose you want usto come out to-morrow?"