 flat upon the table. Across the middle of it a single sentence
had been formed by the expedient of pasting printed words upon it. It ran:
 
                     As you value your life or your reason
                            keep away from the moor.
 
The word moor only was printed in ink.
    »Now,« said Sir Henry Baskerville, »perhaps you will tell me, Mr. Holmes,
what in thunder is the meaning of that, and who it is that takes so much
interest in my affairs?«
    »What do you make of it, Dr. Mortimer? You must allow that there is nothing
supernatural about this, at any rate?«
    »No, sir, but it might very well come from someone who was convinced that
the business is supernatural.«
    »What business?« asked Sir Henry sharply. »It seems to me that all you
gentlemen know a great deal more than I do about my own affairs.«
    »You shall share our knowledge before you leave this room, Sir Henry. I
promise you that,« said Sherlock Holmes. »We will confine ourselves for the
present with your permission to this very interesting document, which must have
been put together and posted yesterday evening. Have you yesterday's Times,
Watson?«
    »It is here in the corner.«
    »Might I trouble you for it - the inside page, please, with the leading
articles?« He glanced swiftly over it, running his eyes up and down the columns.
»Capital article this on free trade. Permit me to give you an extract from it.
 
        You may be cajoled into imagining that your own special trade or your
        own industry will be encouraged by a protective tariff, but it stands to
        reason that such legislation must in the long run keep away wealth from
        the country, diminish the value of our imports, and lower the general
        conditions of life in this island.
 
What do you think of that, Watson?« cried Holmes in high glee, rubbing his hands
together with satisfaction. »Don't you think that is an admirable sentiment?«
    Dr. Mortimer looked at Holmes with an air of professional interest, and Sir
Henry Baskerville turned a pair of puzzled dark eyes upon me.
    »I don't know much about the tariff and things of that kind,« said be, »but
it seems to me we've got a bit off the trail so far as that note is concerned.«
    »On the contrary, I think we are particularly hot upon the trail, Sir Henry.
Watson here knows more about my methods than you do
