You see, I have certain data, as you suggest, which you do not possess.

There is, for instance, a certain ingenious gentleman concerning whom I hold what I believe to be exclusive information, and my knowledge of him does not make it appear unlikely that he might be the author of these neat little plans." "I am much impressed," I said, as I put away my notebook, after having jotted down the points that Thorndyke had advised me to consider--"I am much impressed by your powers of observation and your capacity for reasoning from apparently trivial data; but I do not see, even now, why you viewed that cigar with such immediate and decided suspicion.

There was nothing actually to suggest the existence of poison in it, and yet you seemed to form the suspicion at once and to search for it as though you expected to find it." "Yes," replied Thorndyke; "to a certain extent you are right.

The idea of a poisoned cigar was not new to me--and thereby hangs a tale." He laughed softly and gazed into the fire with eyes that twinkled with quiet amusement.

"You have heard me say," he resumed, after a short pause, "that when I first took these chambers I had practically nothing to do.