 small medical shelf I took down the Medical
Directory and turned up the name. There were several Mortimers, but only one who
could be our visitor. I read his record aloud.
 
        »Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon. House
        surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital. Winner of the
        Jackson prize for Comparative Pathology, with essay entitled Is Disease
        a Reversion? Corresponding member of the Swedish Pathological Society.
        Author of Some Freaks of Atavism (Lancet, 1882). Do We Progress? (
        Journal of Psychology, March, 1883). Medical Officer for the parishes of
        Grimpen, Thorsley, and High Barrow.«
 
»No mention of that local hunt, Watson,« said Holmes with a mischievous smile,
»but a country doctor, as you very astutely observed. I think that I am fairly
justified in my inferences. As to the adjectives, I said, if I remember right,
amiable, unambitious, and absent-minded. It is my experience that it is only an
amiable man in this world who receives testimonials, only an unambitious one who
abandons a London career for the country, and only an absent-minded one who
leaves his stick and not his visiting-card after waiting an hour in your room.«
    »And the dog?«
    »Has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his master. Being a
heavy stick the dog has held it tightly by the middle, and the marks of his
teeth are very plainly visible. The dog's jaw, as shown in the space between
these marks, is too broad in my opinion for a terrier and not broad enough for a
mastiff. It may have been - yes, by Jove, it is a curly-haired spaniel.«
    He had risen and paced the room as he spoke. Now he halted in the recess of
the window. There was such a ring of conviction in his voice that I glanced up
in surprise.
    »My dear fellow, how can you possibly be so sure of that?«
    »For the very simple reason that I see the dog himself on our very
door-step, and there is the ring of its owner. Don't move, I beg you, Watson. He
is a professional brother of yours, and your presence may be of assistance to
me. Now is the dramatic moment of fate, Watson, when you hear a step upon the
stair which is walking into your life, and you know not whether for good or ill.
What does
