However, we may as well go and have a look. I shall work it out on my own hook.

I may have a laugh at them if I have nothing else. Come on!”

 

He hustled on his overcoat, and bustled about in a way that showed that an

energetic fit had superseded the apathetic one.

 

“Get your hat,” he said.

 

“You wish me to come?”

 

“Yes, if you have nothing better to do.” A minute later we were both in a

hansom, driving furiously for the Brixton Road.

 

It was a foggy, cloudy morning, and a dun-coloured veil hung over the

house-tops, looking like the reflection of the mud-coloured streets beneath. My

companion was in the best of spirits, and prattled away about Cremona fiddles,

and the difference between a Stradivarius and an Amati. As for myself, I was

silent, for the dull weather and the melancholy business upon which we were

engaged, depressed my spirits.

 

“You don’t seem to give much thought to the matter in hand,” I said at last,

interrupting Holmes’ musical disquisition.

 

“No data yet,” he answered. “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have