We will
examine it presently. I found that Mr. Barlow is a new tenant, that he
is rather short, wears a wig and spectacles, and always wears a glove on
his left hand. He left the office at 8.30 this morning, and no one saw
him arrive. He had with him a square case, and a narrow, oblong one
about five feet in length; and he took a cab to Victoria, and apparently
caught the 8.51 train to Chatham."
"Ah!" exclaimed the inspector.
"But," continued Thorndyke, "now examine those three letters, and
compare them with this note that I wrote in Mr. Barlow's office. You see
that the paper is of the same make, with the same water-mark, but that
is of no great significance. What is of crucial importance is this: You
see, in each of these letters, two tiny indentations near the bottom
corner. Somebody has used compasses or drawing-pins over the packet of
notepaper, and the points have made little indentations, which have
marked several of the sheets. Now, notepaper is cut to its size after it
is folded, and if you stick a pin into the top sheet of a section, the
indentations on all the underlying sheets will be at exactly similar
distances from the edges and corners of the sheet.
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