king-chair,
"that the cares of medical practice have not entirely obliterated the
interest which you used to take in our little deductive problems."

"On the contrary," I answered; "it was only last night that I was
looking over my old notes and classifying some of our past results."

"I trust that you don't consider your collection closed?"

"Not at all. I should wish nothing better than to have some more of such
experiences."

"To-day, for example?"

"Yes; to-day, if you like."

"And as far off as Birmingham?"

"Certainly, if you wish it."

"And the practice?"

"I do my neighbour's when he goes. He is always ready to work off the
debt."

[Illustration: "'NOTHING COULD BE BETTER,' SAID HOLMES."]

"Ha! Nothing could be better!" said Holmes, leaning back in his chair
and looking keenly at me from under his half-closed lids. "I perceive
that you have been unwell lately. Summer colds are always a little
trying."

"I was confined to the house by a severe chill for three days last week.
I thought, however, that I had cast off every trace of it."

"So you have. You look remarkably robust."

"How, then, did you know of it?"

"My dear fellow, you know my methods."

"You deduced it, then?"

"Certainly."

"And from what?"

"From your slippers."

I glanced down at the new patent leathers which I was wearing. "How on
earth----?" I began, but Holmes answered my question before it was
asked.

"Your slippers are new," he said. "You could not have had them more than
a few weeks. The soles which you are at this moment presenting to me are
slightly scorched. For a moment I thought they might have got wet and
been burned in the drying. But near the instep there is a small circular
wafer of paper with the shopman's hieroglyphics upon it. Damp would of
course have removed this. You had then been sitting with your feet
outstretched to the fire, which a man would hardly do even in so wet a
June as this if he were in his full health."

Like all Holmes's reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when it
was once explained. He read the thought upon my features, and his smile
had a tinge of bitterness.

"I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain," said he.
"Results without causes are much more impressive. You are ready to come
to Birmingham, then?"

"Certainly. What is the case?"

"You shall hear it all in the train. My client is outside in a
four-wheeler. Can you come at once?"

"In an ins