46339 'There are one or two indications, and yet the utmost pains have been taken to remove all clues.
46340 The address, you observe, is printed in rough characters.
46341 But The Times is a paper which is seldom found in any hands but those of the highly educated.
46342 We may take it, therefore, that the letter was composed by an educated man who wished to pose as an uneducated one, and his effort to conceal his own writing suggests that that writing might be known, or come to be known, by you.
46343 Again, you will observe that the words are not gummed on in an accurate line, but that some are much higher than others.
46344 "Life", for example, is quite out of its proper place.
46345 That may point to carelessness or it may point to agitation and hurry upon the part of the cutter.
46346 On the whole I incline to the latter view, since the matter was evidently important, and it is unlikely that the composer of such a letter would be careless.
46347 If he were in a hurry it opens up the interesting question why he should be in a hurry, since any letter posted up to early morning would reach Sir Henry before he would leave his hotel.
46348 Did the composer fear an interruption - and from whom?'
46349 'We are coming now rather into the region of guesswork,' said Dr Mortimer.
46350 'Say, rather, into the region where we balance probabilities and choose the most likely.
46351 It is the scientific use of the imagination, but we have always some material basis on which to start our speculations.
46352 Now, you would call it a guess, no doubt, but I am almost certain that this address has been written in an hotel.'