Mandala of Sherlock Holmes Read Online Free PDF Page A

surveyor of long standing and an explorer who has spent a great deal of time tramping about the Himalayas. And, as I had occasion to inform him at an earlier meeting, someone who has been to Afghanistan. Furthermore, I am afraid he is connected with you, Strickland, in a manner not direcdy involving your Department; would it be correct of me to say, through a secret society?’
    ‘By Jove!’ exclaimed Strickland. ‘How on earth did you guess all that?’
    ‘I never guess,’ said the Norwegian with some asperity. ‘It is an appalling habit, destructive to the logical faculty.’
    ‘This is most wonderful,’ I blurted out unwitting, somewhat confused by the shock of such unexpected revelations.
    ‘Commonplace,’ was his reply. ‘Merely a matter of training oneself to see what others overlook.’ He leaned back on his chair, his long legs stretched out and his fingertips pressed together.
    ‘You see, my dear Strickland,’ he began, in a tone reminiscent of a professor lecturing his class,‘despite the deceptively sedentary appearance of the gentleman’s upper body, his calves, so prominendy displayed under his native draperies, show a marked vascular and muscular development that can only be explained in terms of prolonged and strenuous walking, most probably in mountainous areas. His right foot, in those open-work sandals, has the middle toe missing. It could not have been cut off in an accident or a violent encounter as the close adjoining digits do not seem to be affected in any way; and we must bear in mind that the toes of the foot cannot be splayed like the fingers of the hand for any convenient amputation. Since the generally healthy appearance of the gendeman would point against any diseases, like leprosy, I could safely conclude that his loss must have occurred through frostbite — and the only mountains in this country which receive heavy snowfalls are the Himalayas.
    ‘I also noticed that he had a nervous tic in his right eye, oftentimes an occupational disorder afflicting astronomers, laboratory technicians and surveyors, who constantly favour a certain eye when peering through their telescopes, microscopes or theodolites. Taken along with the fact of his strenuous jaunts in the Himalayas, surveying would be the most acceptable profession in this instance. Of course, surveying is an innocent occupation, not normally-associated with people pretending to be what they are not. So in this case I concluded that he had practised his skills in areas where the true nature of his work and his identity had to be concealed, that is in hostile and hitherto unexplored areas. Hence our Himalayan explorer. Voild tout’
    ‘And my intelligence and scholasticism?’ I asked amazed.
    ‘That was simple,’ he laughed. ‘The degree of intelligence could easily be deduced by the larger than normal size of your head. It is a question of cubic capacity. So large a brain must have something in it. The scholarly drift of your interests was easily discernible from the top of the blue journal I noticed peeping coyly from your coat pocket. The colour and binding of the Asiatic Quarterly Review is a distinctive one.’
    ‘But Afghanistan?’ I managed to squeak.
    ‘Is it not obvious? I will not insult the intelligence that I just lauded by describing how easily I came about it.’
    There was a distinct twinkle in his eyes as he turned to Strickland. ‘And when the shirt of an English police officer reveals the distinct outiine of a peculiar native amulet, which is strangely also worn, this time more openly, around the neck of our native gentleman here, surely some kind of connection can be postulated. On the balance of probabilities the chance of both of you belonging to some kind of society, possibly a secret one, is therefore high. Moreover, in my readings on the subject, I have been informed that next to China, this country is the most infested with such organisations. Ryder, in his History of Secret Cults, is very