? ? ? ? As I glanced up from reading this enigmatical message, I saw Holmes chuckling at the expression upon my face.
? ? ? ? "You look a little bewildered," said he.
? ? ? ? "I cannot see how such a message as this could inspire horror. It seems to me to be rather grotesque than otherwise."
? ? ? ? "Very likely. Yet the fact remains that the reader, who was a fine, robust old man, was knocked clean down by it as if it had been the butt end of a pistol."
? ? ? ? "You arouse my curiosity," said I. "But why did you say just now that there were very particular reasons why I should study this case?"
? ? ? ? "Because it was the first in which I was ever engaged."
? ? ? ? I had often endeavoured to elicit from my companion what had first turned his mind in the direction of criminal research, but had never caught him before in a communicative humour. Now he sat forward in his armchair and spread out the documents upon his knees. Then he lit his pipe and sat for some time smoking and turning them over.
? ? ? ? "You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor?" he asked. "He was the only friend I made during the two years I was at college.
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