? ? ? ? "The Cunninghams joined us. as you doubtless remember outside the kitchen door. It was, of course, of the very first importance that they should not be reminded of the existence of this paper otherwise they would naturally destroy it without delay. The inspector was about to tell them the importance which we attached to it when, by the luckiest chance in the world, I tumbled down in a sort of fit and so changed the conversation."
? ? ? ? "Good heavens!" cned the colonel, laughing, "do you mean to say all our sympathy was wasted and your fit an imposture?"
? ? ? ? "Speaking professionally, it was admirably done," cried I, looking in amazement at this man who was forever confounding me with some new phase of his astuteness.
? ? ? ? "It is an art which is often useful," said he. "When I recovered I managed, by a device which had perhaps some little merit of ingenuity, to get old Cunningham to write the word 'twelve,' so that I might compare it with the 'twelve' upon the paper."
? ? ? ? "Oh, what an ass I have been!" I exclaimed.
? ? ? ? "I could see that you were commiserating me over my weakness," said Holmes, laughing. "I was sorry to cause you the sympathetic pain which I know that you felt.
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