."

"Precisely. But this is not a practical joke."

"You are sure of it?"

"The presumption is strongly against it. Bodies in the
dissecting-rooms are injected with preservative fluid. These ears bear
no signs of this. They are fresh, too. They have been cut off with a
blunt instrument, which would hardly happen if a student had done it.
Again, carbolic or rectified spirits would be the preservatives which
would suggest themselves to the medical mind, certainly not rough salt.
I repeat that there is no practical joke here, but that we are
investigating a serious crime."

A vague thrill ran through me as I listened to my companion's words and
saw the stern gravity which had hardened his features. This brutal
preliminary seemed to shadow forth some strange and inexplicable horror
in the background. Lestrade, however, shook his head like a man who is
only half convinced.

"There are objections to the joke theory, no doubt," said he, "but
there are much stronger reasons against the other. We know that this
woman has led a most quiet and respectable life at Penge and here for
the last twenty years. She has hardly been away from her home for a
day during that time. Why on earth, then, should any criminal send her
the proofs of his guilt, especially as, unless she is a most consummate
actress, she understands quite as little of the matter as we do?"

"That is the problem which we have to solve," Holmes answered, "and for
my part I shall set about it by presuming that my reasoning is correct,
and that a double murder has been committed. One of these ears is a
woman's, small, finely formed, and pierced for an earring. The other
is a man's, sun-burned, discoloured, and also pierced for an earring.
These two people are presumably dead, or we should have heard their
story before now. To-day is Friday. The packet was posted on Thursday
morning. The tragedy, then, occurred on Wednesday or Tuesday, or
earlier. If the two people were murdered, who but their murderer would
have sent this sign of his work to Miss Cushing? We may take it that
the sender of the packet is the man whom we want. But he must have some
strong reason for sending Miss Cushing this packet. What reason then?
It must have been to tell her that the deed was done! or to pain her,
perhaps. But in that case she knows who it is. Does she know? I
doubt it. If she knew, why should she call the police in? She might
have buried the ears, and no on