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 beak, which jutted 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 slovenly fashion, for his frock-coat was dingy and his trousers frayed. Though young, his long back was already bowed, and he walked with a forward thrust of his head and a general air of peering benevolence. As he entered his eyes fell upon the stick in Holmes's hand, and he ran towards it with an exclamation of joy. `I am so very glad,' said he. `I was not sure whether I had left it here or in the Shipping 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 astonishment.
`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 humble M.R.C.S.'
`And a man of precise mind, evidently.'
`A dabbler 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 skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.'
Sherlock Holmes waved our strange visitor into a chair. `You are an enthusiast in your line of thought, I perceive, sir, as I am in mine,' said he. `I observe from your forefinger that you make your own cigarettes.
Have no hesitation in lighting one.'
The man drew out paper and tobacco and twirled the one up in the other with surprising dexterity. He had long, quivering fingers as agile and restless as the antennae of an insect.
Holmes was silent, but his little darting 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 asperity.
`To the man of precisely 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 kindly tell me plainly what the exact nature of the problem is in which you demand my assistance.'
