insert between his
teeth. Now Captain Kidd would hardly have risked the edges of his mustache
and the comfort of his lips by smoking a cigar down to the very light if
he had had another; nor would he under any circumstances have smoked it
that far unless he were passionately addicted to this particular brand of
the weed. Therefore I say to you, first, this was his cigar; second, it
was the last one he had; third, he is a confirmed smoker. The result, he
has gone to the one place in the world where these Connecticut hand-rolled
Havana cigars--for I recognize this as one of them--have a real
popularity, and are therefore more certainly obtainable, and that is at
London. You cannot get so vile a cigar as that outside of a London hotel.
If I could have seen a quarter-inch more of it, I should have been able
definitely to locate the hotel itself. The wrappers unroll to a degree
that varies perceptibly as between the different hotels. The Metropole
cigar can be smoked a quarter through before its wrapper gives way; the
Grand wrapper goes as soon as you light the cigar; whereas the Savoy,
fronting on the Thames, is surrounded by a moister atmosphere than the
others, and, as a consequence, the wrapper will hold really until most
people are willing to throw the whole thing away."

"It is really a wonderful art!" said Solomon.

"The making of a Connecticut Havana cigar?" laughed Holmes. "Not at all.
Give me a head of lettuce and a straw, and I'll make you a box."

"I referred to your art--that of detection," said Solomon. "Your logic is
perfect; step by step we have been led to the irresistible conclusion that
Kidd has made for London, and can be found at one of these hotels."

"And only until next Tuesday, when he will take a house in the
neighborhood of Scotland Yard," put in Holmes, quickly, observing a sneer
on Hawkshaw's lips, and hastening to overwhelm him by further evidence of
his ingenuity. "When he gets his bill he will open his piratical eyes so
wide that he will be seized with jealousy to think of how much more
refined his profession has become since he left it, and out of mere pique
he will leave the hotel, and, to show himself still cleverer than his
modern prototypes, he will leave his account unpaid, with the result that
the affair will be put in the hands of the police, under which
circumstances a house in the immediate vicinity of the famous police
headquarters will be the safest hiding-place he can find, as