[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.'I see from your appearance that you.' Holmes trailed off into silence; puzzled.'Your cuffs suggest.'Again, he halted.He frowned.I could see that he was at a loss.'That soil on your gaiter, I do not recognize it,' he said finally.The Doctor grabbed at his foot and pulled it up to eye level.'Ah,' he said, 'a slurry of clay and dust from Menaxus.Now there's a place to go for a show.''Menaxus? I am not familiar with the name: it must be a small village.Greek, I would venture.'The Doctor tilted his head back and smiled a toothy grin.'Menaxus is close to the Rippearean cluster.''And the spatulate appearance of your right forefinger.It is similar to that seen in typists, but I would have expected an indentation across your right thumb from the space bar.'The Doctor peered at the offending digit as if he had just found it on his dinner plate.'Ah, he said, relieved, and jabbed at the air with the finger.'Too much prodding of large, metal creatures.'Holmes and I looked across at each other.The man was obviously deranged.'I see that you dabble in chemistry' the Doctor said, walking across to the deal-topped table where Holmes kept his retorts and flasks.'I am presently researching into coal-tar derivatives,' Holmes replied, drawing himself up stiffly.'Now, may I ask what your business is with us?''Take precautions if you ever manage to distil coronic acid,' the Doctor muttered, picked up three flasks filled with liquid and juggling with them.'It's a nasty substance.Very nasty indeed.''I would be obliged if you would.''Yes, I know.You would be obliged if I put down these flasks.Oh, very well.'He placed them back on the table and turned to Holmes.'I have no business with you,' he said, finally answering Holmes's question.'But you have business with me.'The Doctor threw himself into Holmes's armchair and grinned up at us.Holmes opened his mouth to make a cutting reply, but a knock at the door interrupted him.We turned as Mrs Hudson limped into the room with a tray bearing cups, saucers, plates, cakes and a teapot.'I took the liberty of ordering tea,' the Doctor said, grinning up ingenuously at Mrs Hudson.'Your landlady is a treasure.'Mrs Hudson pampered the Doctor as if he were the vicar come to call: pouring his tea, sweetening it and cutting him a slice of Madeira cake.Holmes and I looked on, aghast.Her usual attitude to our visitors ranged from disinterest to barely veiled contempt.Despite my recent lunch the sight of the Doctor gobbling down the cake made my stomach rumble.I sat in my usual chair, cut myself a slice and poured a cup of tea.Holmes remained, raging impotently, on his feet.'Now,' the Doctor babbled on after three slices and two cups had gone the way of all things.'Where were we? Ah yes, the robbery at the Library of St John the Beheaded.I presume you will have questioned Mr Ambrose, and received from him a list of recent visitors to the Library.My name will be on that list.I suspect that I want to know who took those books just as much as you do, and that's why I am here, to pool resources, share information, spread panic and sow the seeds of defeat in the fields of our enemies.Now I realize that I am just as much a suspect as anybody else on that list -' he suddenly frowned and looked away ' - a position I find myself adopting with monotonous regularity -' he smiled sunnily and looked back at us again ' -but I don't see why that can't be just as much the basis for a long and fruitful relationship as mutual trust.Now, any questions?'Holmes held up the Doctor's card.'You give no address.''Ah.' The Doctor stood.'I travel.''No fixed abode,' said Holmes, towering over the diminutive figure.'Oh, I have a fixed abode.' The Doctor plucked the card from Holmes's hand and slipped it into his waistcoat.'But it travels."Not bound to swear allegiance to any master, wherever the wind takes me I travel as a visitor":'I do not appreciate flippancy,' Holmes snapped.'I always try to mix a little foolishness with my serious plans,' the Doctor replied, gazing up into Holmes's face.'It's lovely to be silly at the right moment.But, if it makes you feel any better, I am currently lodging in Hampstead.''With whom?''Professor Litefoot.You may know of him.'At this juncture I interjected, 'Not Professor George Litefoot, the eminent pathologist?''The very same!'Holmes was not to be put off so easily.'And what exactly are you a Doctor of?' he growled.'Metaphysico-theologico-cosmologo-nigology!' announced the Doctor triumphantly.Holmes pursed his lips and strode to the window.'Facile quotations from Voltaire will not help your case,' he barked.'If you remain unwilling to provide a straight answer then I can only surmise that you are unwilling to cooperate with our investigations.''Oh very well.' The little man pouted, and stared down at his gaiters.'If it helps, I took a medical degree in Edinburgh in eighteen seventy.''What a coincidence!' I exclaimed.'I studied for my Bachelor's degree and my baccalaureate at the University of Edinburgh from that very year onwards! I must say,' and I studied his features more closely, 'that I do not remember you.'The Doctor shifted uneasily in Holmes's armchair.'I can't say I'm surprised.I looked different then.'I stroked my moustache and looked ruefully down at my figure: stockier now than it had been seventeen years ago.'So did I,' I admitted.'This is getting us nowhere,' Holmes pronounced, staring out of the window [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]