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I handed hi of aht, an iainst the somatic tone which he occasionally assuazed hard at the dial, opened the back, and examined the works, first with his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens I could hardly keep fro at his crestfallen face when he finally snapped the case to and handed it back

"There are hardly any data," he remarked "The watch has been recently cleaned, which robs ht," I answered "It was cleaned before being sent toforward a most lame and impotent excuse to cover his failure What data could he expect froh unsatisfactory, my research has not been entirely barren," he observed, staring up at the ceiling with dreamy, lack-lustre eyes "Subject to your correction, I should judge that the watch belonged to your elder brother, who inherited it froather, no doubt, froests your own name The date of the watch is nearly fifty years back, and the initials are as old as the watch: so it was eneration Jewelry usually descends to the eldest son, and he is most likely to have the saht, been dead many years It has, therefore, been in the hands of your eldest brother"

"Right, so far," said I "Anything else?"

"He was a man of untidy habits,--very untidy and careless He was left with good prospects, but he threay his chances, lived for some time in poverty with occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died That is all I can gather"

I sprang from my chair and limped impatiently about the room with considerable bitterness in my heart

"This is unworthy of you, Holmes," I said "I could not have believed that you would have descended to this You have made inquires into the history of my unhappy brother, and you now pretend to deduce this knowledge in some fanciful way You cannot expect me to believe that you have read all this from his old watch! It is unkind, and, to speak plainly, has a touch of charlatanism in it"

"My dear doctor," said he, kindly, "pray acceptthe otten how personal and painful a thing it ht be to you I assure you, however, that I never even knew that you had a brother until you handed me the watch"