nd boot-laces. The
indications here, however, are neither very marked nor very important.
The owner is obviously a muscular man, left-handed, with an excellent
set of teeth, careless in his habits, and with no need to practise
economy."

My friend threw out the information in a very off-hand way, but I saw
that he cocked his eye at me to see if I had followed his reasoning.

"You think a man must be well-to-do if he smokes a seven-shilling pipe?"
said I.

"This is Grosvenor mixture at eightpence an ounce," Holmes answered,
knocking a little out on his palm. "As he might get an excellent smoke
for half the price, he has no need to practise economy."

"And the other points?"

"He has been in the habit of lighting his pipe at lamps and gas-jets.
You can see that it is quite charred all down one side. Of course, a
match could not have done that. Why should a man hold a match to the
side of his pipe? But you cannot light it at a lamp without getting the
bowl charred. And it is all on the right side of the pipe. From that I
gather that he is a left-handed man. You hold your own pipe to the lamp,
and see how naturally you, being right-handed, hold the left side to the
flame. You might do it once the other way, but not as a constancy. This
has always been held so. Then he has bitten through his amber. It takes
a muscular, energetic fellow, and one with a good set of teeth to do
that. But if I am not mistaken I hear him upon the stair, so we shall
have something more interesting than his pipe to study."

An instant later our door opened, and a tall young man entered the room.
He was well but quietly dressed in a dark-grey suit, and carried a brown
wideawake in his hand. I should have put him at about thirty, though he
was really some years older.

"I beg your pardon," said he, with some embarrassment; "I suppose I
should have knocked. Yes, of course I should have knocked. The fact is
that I am a little upset, and you must put it all down to that." He
passed his hand over his forehead like a man who is half dazed, and then
fell, rather than sat, down upon a chair.

"I can see that you have not slept for a night or two," said Holmes, in
his easy, genial way. "That tries a man's nerves more than work, and
more even than pleasure. May I ask how I can help you?"

"I wanted your advice, sir. I don't know what to do, and my whole life
seems to have gone to pieces."

"You wish to employ me as a consulting detective?"

"Not