“Very pretty,” said Parker. “A bit intricate, though, and the marks are not all that I could wish a finger-print to be.”
“Well, I won't lay too much stress on it. But it fits in with our previous ideas. Now let's turn to:
“C. The prints obligingly left by my own particular villain on the further edge of Thipps's bath, where you spotted them, and I ought to be scourged for not having spotted them. The left hand, you notice, the base of the palm and the fingers, but not the tips, looking as though he had steadied himself on the edge of the bath while leaning down to adjust something at the bottom, the pince-nez perhaps. Gloved, you see, but showing no ridge or seam of any kind—I say rubber, you say rubber. That's that. Now see here:
“D and E come off a visiting-card of mine. There's this
