Mr. Sherlock Holmes who was usually very late in the mornings save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick which our visitorhad left behind him the night before. It was a fine thick  piece of wood bulbous-headed of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To James Mortimer M.R.C.S. from his friends of the C.C.H." was engraved upon it with the date "1884." It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry dignified solid and reassuring.