The Adventure of the Cardboard Box | Page 9

cards and threw it over
to Lestrade.
"That is the name," he said. "You cannot effect an arrest until to-morrow night at the
earliest. I should prefer that you do not mention my name at all in connection with the
case, as I choose to be only associated with those crimes which present some difficulty in
their solution. Come on, Watson." We strode off together to the station, leaving Lestrade
still staring with a delighted face at the card which Holmes had thrown him.
"The case," said Sherlock Holmes as we chatted over or cigars that night in our rooms at
Baker Street, "is one where, as in the investigations which you have chronicled under the
names of 'A Study in Scarlet' and of 'The Sign of Four,' we have been compelled to
reason backward from effects to causes. I have written to Lestrade asking him to supply
us with the details which are now wanting, and which he will only get after he had
secured his man. That he may be safely trusted to do, for although he is absolutely devoid
of reason, he is as tenacious as a bulldog when he once understands what he has to do,
and indeed, it is just this tenacity which has brought him to the top at Scotland Yard."
"Your case is not complete, then?" I asked.
"It is fairly complete in essentials. We know who the author of the revolting business is,
although one of the victims still escapes us. Of course, you have formed your own
conclusions."
"I presume that this Jim Browner, the steward of a Liverpool boat, is the man whom you
suspect?"
"Oh! it is more than a suspicion."
"And yet I cannot see anything save very vague indications."
"On the contrary, to my mind nothing could be more clear. Let me run over the principal
steps. We approached the case, you remember, with an absolutely blank mind, which is

always an advantage. We had formed no theories. We were simply there to observe and
to draw inferences from our observations. What did we see first? A very placid and
respectable lady, who seemed quite innocent of any secret, and a portrait which showed
me that she had two younger sisters. It instantly flashed across my mind that the box
might have been meant for one of these. I set the idea aside as one which could be
disproved or confirmed at our leisure. Then we went to the garden, as you remember, and
we saw the very singular contents of the little yellow box.
"The string was of the quality which is used by sail-makers aboard ship, and at once a
whiff of the sea was perceptible in our investigation. When I observed that the knot was
one which is popular with sailors, that the parcel had been posted at a port, and that the
male ear was pierced for an earring which is so much more common among sailors than
landsmen, I was quite certain that all the actors in the tragedy were to be found among
our seafaring classes.
"When I came to examine the address of the packet I observed that it was to Miss S.
Cushing. Now, the oldest sister would, of course, be Miss Cushing, and although her
initial was 'S' it might belong to one of the others as well. In that case we should have to
commence our investigation from a fresh basis altogether. I therefore went into the house
with the intention of clearing up this point. I was about to assure Miss Cushing that I was
convinced that a mistake had been made when you may remember that I came suddenly
to a stop. The fact was that I had just seen something which filled me with surprise and at
the same time narrowed the field of our inquiry immensely.
"As a medical man, you are aware, Watson, that there is no part of the body which varies
so much as the human ear. Each ear is as a rule quite distinctive and differs from all other
ones. In last year's Anthropological Journal you will find two short monographs from my
pen upon the subject. I had, therefore, examined the ears in the box with the eyes of an
expert and had carefully noted their anatomical peculiarities. Imagine my surprise, then,
when on looking at Miss Cushing I perceived that her ear corresponded exactly with the
female ear which I had just inspected. The matter was entirely beyond coincidence. There
was the same shortening of the pinna, the same broad curve of the upper lobe, the same
convolution of the inner cartilage. In all essentials it was the same ear.
"In the first place, her sister's name was Sarah, and her address had until recently been the
same,