46478    When our friends left I at once followed them in the hopes of marking down their invisible attendant.

46479    So wily was he that he had not trusted himself upon foot, but he had availed himself of a cab, so that he could loiter behind or dash past them and so escape their notice.

46480    His method had the additional advantage that if they were to take a cab he was all ready to follow them.

46481    It has, however, one obvious disadvantage.'

46482    'It puts him in the power of the cabman.'

46483    'Exactly.'

46484    'What a pity we did not get the number!'

46485    'My dear Watson, clumsy as I have been, you surely do not seriously imagine that I neglected to get the number?

46486    2704 is our man.

46487    But that is no use to us for the moment.'

46488    'I fail to see how you could have done more.'

46489    'On observing the cab I should have instantly turned and walked in the other direction.

46490    I should then at my leisure have hired a second cab and followed the first at a respectful distance, or, better still, have driven to the Northumberland Hotel and waited there.

46491    When our unknown had followed Baskerville home we should have had the opportunity of playing his own game upon himself, and seeing where he made for.

46492    As it is, by an indiscreet eagerness, which was taken advantage of with extraordinary quickness and energy by our opponent, we have betrayed ourselves and lost our man.'