points of view. When you pass Bradley's, would you ask him to
send up a pound of the strongest shag tobacco? Thank you. It
would be as well if you could make it convenient not to return
before evening. Then I should be very glad to compare impressions
as to this most interesting problem which has been submitted to
us this morning."

I knew that seclusion and solitude were very necessary for my
friend in those hours of intense mental concentration during which
he weighed every particle of evidence, constructed alternative
theories, balanced one against the other, and made up his mind
as to which points were essential and which immaterial. I
therefore spent the day at my club and did not return to Baker
Street until evening. It was nearly nine o'clock when I found
myself in the sitting-room once more.

My first impression as I opened the door was that a fire had
broken out, for the room was so filled with smoke that the light
of the lamp upon the table was blurred by it. As I entered,
however, my fears were set at rest, for it was the acrid fumes
of strong coarse tobacco which took me by the throat and set me
coughing. Through the haze I had a vague vision of Holmes in
his dressing-gown coiled up in an armchair with his black clay
pipe between his lips. Several rolls of paper lay around him.

"Caught cold, Watson?" said he.

"No, it's this poisonous atmosphere."

"I suppose it is pretty thick, now that you mention it."