“But this is my special hobby, and the differences are equally obvious. There is as much difference to my eyes between the leaded bourgeois type of a Times article and the slovenly print of an evening halfpenny paper as there could be between your negro and your Eskimo. The detection of types is one of the most elementary branches of knowledge to the special expert in crime, though I confess that once when I was very young I confused the Leeds Mercury with the Western Morning News . But a Times leader is entirely distinctive, and these words could have been taken from nothing else. As it was done yesterday the strong probability was that we should find the words in yesterday’s issue.”
“So far as I can follow you, then, Mr. Holmes,” said Sir Henry Baskerville, “someone cut out this message with a scissors—”
“Nail-scissors,” said Holmes. “You can see that it was a very short-bladed scissors, since the cutter had to take two snips over ‘keep away.’ ”
“That is so. Someone, then, cut out the message with a pair of short-bladed scissors, pasted it with paste—”
“Gum,” said Holmes.
“With gum on to the paper. But I want to know why the word ‘moor’ should have been written?”
“Because he could not find it in print. The other words were all simple and might be found in any issue, but ‘moor’ would be less common.”
“Why, of course, that would explain it. Have you read anything else in this message, Mr. Holmes?”
“There are one or two indications, and yet the utmost pains have been taken to remove all clues. The address, you observe is printed in rough characters. But the Times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated. We may take it, therefore, that the letter