We shall thus be justified in assuming that the bullet and the cigar came from the same person; and, if this be so, we may say that X is a person of considerable knowledge, of great ingenuity and no mean skill as a mechanician--as shown by the manufacture of the bullet.
"These are our principal facts--to which we may add the surmise that he has recently purchased a second-hand Blickensderfer of the literary form or, at least, fitted with a literary typewheel." "I don't quite see how you arrive at that," I said, in some surprise.
"It is merely a guess, you know," he replied, "though a probable one.

In the first place he is obviously unused to typing, as the numerous mistakes show; therefore he has not had the machine very long.

The type is that which is peculiar to the Blickensderfer, and, in one of the mistakes, an asterisk has been printed in place of a letter.

But the literary typewheel is the only one that has the asterisk.

As to the age of the machine, there are evident signs of wear, for some of the letters have lost their sharpness, and this is most evident in the case of those letters which are the most used--the 'e,' you will notice, for instance, is much worn; and 'e' occurs more frequently than any other letter of the alphabet.