"No," he said; "the devilled bones were not good. Don't interrupt me; you had devilled bones for supper, or rather you would have had them, only you didn't like them. Do you see that match? A small piece is broken off the bottom, but enough is left to show it was once a lucifer--in other words, a devil. It is lying at the feet of the skeleton which you use for your anatomical investigations, and therefore I naturally conclude that you had devilled bones for supper. You didn't eat them, _for not a single bone of the skeleton is missing_. Do I make myself clear?" "You do," I said, marvelling more than ever at the extraordinary perspicacity of the man. As a matter of fact, my supper had consisted of bread and cheese; but I felt that it would be in extremely bad taste for a struggling medical practitioner like myself to contradict a detective whose fame had extended to the ends of the earth. I picked up my pipe, and relit it, and, for a few moments, we sat in silence. At last I ventured to address him. "Anything new?" I said. "No, not exactly new," he said, wearily, passing his sinewy hand over his expressionless brow. "Have you a special _Evening Standard_? I conclude you have, as I see no other evening papers here. Do you mind handing it to me?" There was no deceiving this weird creature. I took the paper he mentioned from my study table, and handed it to him. "Now listen," said HOLES, and then read, in a voice devoid of any sign of emotion, the following paragraph:--"This morning, as Mrs. DRABLEY, a lady of independent means, was walking in Piccadilly, she inadvertently stepped on a piece of orange-peel, and fell heavily on the pavement. She was carried into the shop of Messrs. SALVER AND TANKARD, the well-known silversmiths, and it was at first thought she had broken her right leg. However, on being examined by a medical man who happened to be passing, she was pronounced to be suffering from nothing worse than a severe bruise, and, in the course of half-an-hour, she recovered sufficiently to be able to proceed on her business. This is the fifth accident caused by orange-peel at the same place within the last week." [Illustration: "The Bishop was in his night-gown, and the sight of two strangers visibly alarmed him."] "It _is_ scandalous!" I broke in. "This mania for dropping orange-peel is decimating London. Curiously enough I happen to be the medical man who----" "Yes, I know; you are the medical man who was passing." "HOLES," I ejaculated, "you are a magician." "No, not a magician; only a humble seeker after truth, who uses as a basis for his deduction some slight point that others are too blind to grasp. Now you think the matter ends there. I don't. I mean to discover who dropped that orange-peel. Will you help me?" "Of course I will, but how do you mean to proceed? There must be thousands of people who eat oranges every day in London."