"
He peered anxiously into the interior of the hat, and eventually turned
down the head-lining; and immediately there broke out upon his face a
gleam of satisfaction.
"Ha!" he exclaimed. "This is a stroke of luck. I was afraid our neat and
orderly friend had defeated us with his brush. Pass me the small
dissecting forceps, Jervis."
I handed him the instrument, and he proceeded to pick out daintily from
the space behind the head-lining some half a dozen short pieces of
hair, which he laid, with infinite tenderness, on a sheet of white
paper.
"There are several more on the other side," I said, pointing them out to
him.
"Yes, but we must leave some for the police," he answered, with a smile.
"They must have the same chance as ourselves, you know."
"But surely," I said, as I bent down over the paper, "these are pieces
of horsehair!"
"I think not," he replied; "but the microscope will show. At any rate,
this is the kind of hair I should expect to find with a head of that
shape."
"Well, it is extraordinarily coarse," said I, "and two of the hairs are
nearly white."
"Yes; black hairs beginning to turn grey.
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