 then, cut out the message with a pair of short-bladed
scissors, pasted it with paste -«
    »Gum,« said Holmes.
    »With gum on to the paper. But I want to know why the word moor should have
been written?«
    »Because he could not find it in print. The other words were all simple and
might be found in any issue, but moor would be less common.«
    »Why, of course, that would explain it. Have you read anything else in this
message, Mr. Holmes?«
    »There are one or two indications, and yet the utmost pains have been taken
to remove all clues. The address, you observe, is printed in rough characters.
But the Times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the
highly educated. We may take it, therefore, that the letter was composed by an
educated man who wished to pose as an uneducated one, and his effort to conceal
his own writing suggests that that writing might be known, or come to be known,
by you. Again, you will observe that the words are not gummed on in an accurate
line, but that some are much higher than others. Life, for example, is quite out
of its proper place. That may point to carelessness or it may point to agitation
and hurry upon the part of the cutter. On the whole I incline to the latter
view, since the matter was evidently important, and it is unlikely that the
composer of such a letter would be careless. If he were in a hurry it opens up
the interesting question why he should be in a hurry, since any letter posted up
to early morning would reach Sir Henry before he would leave his hotel. Did the
composer fear an interruption - and from whom?«
    »We are coming now rather into the region of guesswork,« said Dr. Mortimer.
    »Say, rather, into the region where we balance probabilities and choose the
most likely. It is the scientific use of the imagination, but we have always
some material basis on which to start our speculation. Now, you would call it a
guess, no doubt, but I am almost certain that this address has been written in a
hotel.«
    »How in the world can you say that?«
    »If you examine it carefully you will see that both the pen and the ink have
given the writer trouble. The pen has spluttered twice in a single word and has
run dry three times in a short address, showing that there was very little ink
