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"My practice has extended recently to the Continent," said Hol up his old brier-root pipe "I was consulted last week by Francois Le Villard, who, as you probably know, has come rather to the front lately in the French detective service He has all the Celtic power of quick intuition, but he is deficient in the wide range of exact knowledge which is essential to the higher developments of his art The case was concerned with a will, and possessed some features of interest I was able to refer hia in 1857, and the other at St Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution Here is the letter which I had thismy assistance" He tossed over, as he spoke, a crulanceda profusion of notes of adnifiques," "coup-de- to the ardent admiration of the Frenchman

"He speaks as a pupil to his hly," said Sherlock Holifts himself He possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for the ideal detective He has the power of observation and that of deduction He is only wanting in knowledge; and thatmy small works into French"

"Your works?"

"Oh, didn't you know?" he cried, laughing "Yes, I have been guilty of several raphs They are all upon technical subjects Here, for example, is one 'Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccoes' In it I enuarette-, and pipe-tobacco, with colored plates illustrating the difference in the ash It is a point which is continually turning up in criminal trials, and which is sometimes of supreme importance as a clue If you can say definitely, for exa an Indian lunkah, it obviously narrows your field of search To the trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the white fluff of bird's-eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato"

"You have an extraordinary genius for minutiae," I reraph upon the tracing of footsteps, with some remarks upon the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses Here, too, is a curious little work upon the influence of a trade upon the form of the hand, with lithotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, corkcutters, compositors, weavers, and diareat practical interest to the scientific detective,--especially in cases of unclai the antecedents of criminals But I weary you with my hobby"