|
 ou 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 he, "but it seems to me we've got a bit off the trail so far as that
note is concerned."
excerpted from The Hound of the
Baskervilles
published in The Strand magazine, 1901-1902
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
|