MUDSTAINS AND BLOODSTAINS
"Other things are all very well in their way, but give me
Blood.... We say, 'There it is! that's Blood!' It is an
actual matter of fact. We point it out. It admits of no
doubt.... We must have Blood, you know."
DAVID COPPERFIELD
"Hitherto," said Lord Peter, as they picked their painful way through the little wood on the trail of Gent's No. 10's, "I have always maintained that those obliging criminals who strew their tracks with little articles of personal adornment--here he is, on a squashed fungus--were an invention of detective fiction for the benefit of the author. I see that I have still something to learn about my job."
"Well, you haven't been at it very long, have you?" said Parker. "Besides, we don't know that the diamond cat is the criminal's. It ma
