low around his mouth. A cigarette glowed amid the tangle of
white hair, and the air of the room was fetid with stale tobacco-smoke.
As he held out his hand to Holmes I perceived that it also was stained
yellow with nicotine.

"A smoker, Mr. Holmes?" said he, speaking well-chosen English with a
curious little mincing accent. "Pray take a cigarette. And you, sir? I
can recommend them, for I have them especially prepared by Ionides of
Alexandria. He sends me a thousand at a time, and I grieve to say that I
have to arrange for a fresh supply every fortnight. Bad, sir, very bad,
but an old man has few pleasures. Tobacco and my work--that is all that
is left to me."

Holmes had lit a cigarette, and was shooting little darting glances all
over the room.

"Tobacco and my work, but now only tobacco," the old man exclaimed.
"Alas! what a fatal interruption! Who could have foreseen such a
terrible catastrophe? So estimable a young man! I assure you that after
a few months' training he was an admirable assistant. What do you think
of the matter, Mr. Holmes?"

"I have not yet made up my mind."

"I shall indeed be indebted to you if you can throw a light where all is
so dark to us. To a poor bookworm and invalid like myself such a blow
is paralyzing. I seem to have lost the faculty of thought. But you are
a man of action--you are a man of affairs. It is part of the everyday
routine of your life. You can preserve your balance in every emergency.
We are fortunate indeed in having you at our side."

Holmes was pacing up and down one side of the room whilst the old
Professor was talking. I observed that he was smoking with extraordinary
rapidity. It was evident that he shared our host's liking for the fresh
Alexandrian cigarettes.

"Yes, sir, it is a crushing blow," said the old man. "That is my MAGNUM
OPUS--the pile of papers on the side table yonder. It is my analysis of
the documents found in the Coptic monasteries of Syria and Egypt, a work
which will cut deep at the very foundations of revealed religion.
With my enfeebled health I do not know whether I shall ever be able to
complete it now that my assistant has been taken from me. Dear me, Mr.
Holmes; why, you are even a quicker smoker than I am myself."

Holmes smiled.

"I am a connoisseur," said he, taking another cigarette from the
box--his fourth--and lighting it from the stub of that which he had
finished. "I will not trouble you with any lengthy cross-examination,