Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, saveupon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated atthe breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick whichour visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece ofwood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Justunder the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To JamesMortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved upon it, with the date "1884." It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned familypractitioner used to carry-dignified, solid, and reassuring.