being laughed at, "I cannot see, however,
what it has to do with the death of Mr. Joseph Stangerson."

"Patience, my friend, patience! You will find in time that it has
everything to do with it. I shall now add a little milk to make the
mixture palatable, and on presenting it to the dog we find that he laps
it up readily enough."

As he spoke he turned the contents of the wine glass into a saucer and
placed it in front of the terrier, who speedily licked it dry. Sherlock
Holmes' earnest demeanour had so far convinced us that we all sat in
silence, watching the animal intently, and expecting some startling
effect. None such appeared, however. The dog continued to lie stretched
upon tho [16] cushion, breathing in a laboured way, but apparently
neither the better nor the worse for its draught.

Holmes had taken out his watch, and as minute followed minute without
result, an expression of the utmost chagrin and disappointment appeared
upon his features. He gnawed his lip, drummed his fingers upon the
table, and showed every other symptom of acute impatience. So great
was his emotion, that I felt sincerely sorry for him, while the two
detectives smiled derisively, by no means displeased at this check which
he had met.

"It can't be a coincidence," he cried, at last springing from his chair
and pacing wildly up and down the room; "it is impossible that it should
be a mere coincidence. The very pills which I suspected in the case of
Drebber are actually found after the death of Stangerson. And yet they
are inert. What can it mean? Surely my whole chain of reasoning cannot
have been false. It is impossible! And yet this wretched dog is none the
worse. Ah, I have it! I have it!" With a perfect shriek of delight he
rushed to the box, cut the other pill in two, dissolved it, added milk,
and presented it to the terrier. The unfortunate creature's tongue
seemed hardly to have been moistened in it before it gave a convulsive
shiver in every limb, and lay as rigid and lifeless as if it had been
struck by lightning.

Sherlock Holmes drew a long breath, and wiped the perspiration from his
forehead. "I should have more faith," he said; "I ought to know by
this time that when a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of
deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other
interpretation. Of the two pills in that box one was of the most deadly
poison, and the other was entirely harmless. I ought to have known that