`Nothing,' said he, throwing it down. `It is a blank half-sheet of paper, without even a water-mark upon it. I think we have drawn as much as we can from this curious letter; and now, Sir Henry, has anything else of interest happened to you since you have been in London?'

`Why, no, Mr. Holmes. I think not.'

`You have not observed anyone follow or watch you?'

`I seem to have walked right into the thick of a dime novel,' said our visitor. `Why in thunder should anyone follow or watch me?'

`We are coming to that. You have nothing else to report to us before we go into this matter?'

`Well, it depends upon what you think worth reporting.'

`I think anything out of the ordinary routine of life well worth reporting.'

Sir Henry smiled.

`I don't know much of British life yet, for I have spent nearly all my time in the States and in Canada. But I hope that to lose one of your boots is not part of the ordinary routine of life over here.'

`You have lost one of your boots?'

`My dear sir,' cried Dr. Mortimer, `it is only mislaid. You will find it when you return to the hotel. What is the use of troubling Mr. Holmes with trifles of this kind?'

`Well, he asked me for anything outside the ordinary routine.'

`Exactly,' said Holmes, `however foolish the incident may seem. You have lost one of your boots, you say?'

`Well, mislaid it, anyhow. I put them both outside my door last night, and there was only one in the morning. I could get no sense out of the chap who cleans them. The worst of it is that I only bought the pair last night in the Strand, and I have never had them on.'

`If you have never worn them, why did you put them out to be cleaned?'

`They were tan boots and had never been varnished. That was why I put them out.'

`Then I understand that on your arrival in London yesterday you went out at once and bought a pair of boots?'

`I did a good deal of shopping. Dr. Mortimer here went round with me. You see, if I am to be squire down there I must dress the part, and it may be that I have got a little careless in my ways out West. Among other things I bought these brown boots - gave six dollars for them - and had one stolen before ever I had them on my feet.'

`It seems a singularly useless thing to steal,' said Sherlock Holmes. `I confess that I share Dr. Mortimer's belief that it will not be long before the missing boot is found.'

`And, now, gentlemen,' said the baronet with decision, `it seems to me that I have spoken quite enough about the little that I know. It is time that you kept your promise and gave me a full account of what we are all driving at.'

`Your request is a very reasonable one,' Holmes answered. `Dr. Mortimer, I think you could not do better than to tell your story as you told it to us.'