"Doyle, Arthur Conan - Hound Of The Baskervilles, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Arthur Conan)

in a London practice could hold such a position, and such a
one would not drift into the country. What was he, then?
If he was in the hospital and yet not on the staff he could
only have been a house-surgeon or a house-physician --
little more than a senior student. And he left five years
ago -- the date is on the stick. So your grave, middle-aged
family practitioner vanishes into thin air, my dear Watson,
and there emerges a young fellow under thirty, amiable,
unambitious, absent-minded, and the possessor of a favourite
dog, which I should describe roughly as being larger than a
terrier and smaller than a mastiff."

I laughed incredulously as Sherlock Holmes leaned back in
his settee and blew little wavering rings of smoke up to the
ceiling.

"As to the latter part, I have no means of checking you,"
said I, "but at least it is not difficult to find out a few
particulars about the man's age and professional career."
From my small medical shelf I took down the Medical
Directory and turned up the name. There were several
Mortimers, but only one who could be our visitor.
I read his record aloud.

"Mortimer, James, M.R.C.S., 1882, Grimpen, Dartmoor, Devon.
House surgeon, from 1882 to 1884, at Charing Cross Hospital.
Winner of the Jackson prize for Comparative Pathology, with
essay entitled 'Is Disease a Reversion?' Corresponding
member of the Swedish Pathological Society. Author of 'Some
Freaks of Atavism' (_Lancet_, 1882). 'Do We Progress?'
(_Journal of Psychology_, March, 1883). Medical Officer for
the parishes of Grimpen, Thorsley, and High Barrow."

"No mention of that local hunt, Watson," said Holmes,
with a mischievous smile, "but a country doctor, as you very
astutely observed. I think that I am fairly justified in my
inferences. As to the adjectives, I said, if I remember
right, amiable, unambitious, and absent-minded. It is my
experience that it is only an amiable man in this world who
receives testimonials, only an unambitious one who abandons
a London career for the country, and only an absent-minded
one who leaves his stick and not his visiting-card after
waiting an hour in your room."

"And the dog?"

"Has been in the habit of carrying this stick behind his
master. Being a heavy stick the dog has held it tightly by
the middle, and the marks of his teeth are very plainly
visible. The dog's jaw, as shown in the space between these