Page:The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916).djvu/282

old gentleman was quite pleased with himself."

"Why do you say 'old gentleman'?" asked T. X. ; "he was not an old man."

"Not exactly, sir," said Fisher, "but he had a sort of fussy irritable way that old gentlemen sometimes have and I somehow got it fixed in my mind that he was old. As a matter of fact, he was about forty-five, he may have been fifty."

"You have told me all this before. Was there anything peculiar about him?"

Fisher hesitated.

"Nothing, sir, except the fact that one of his arms was a game one."

"Meaning that it was—"

"Meaning that it was an artificial one, sir, so far as I can make out."

"Was it his right or his left arm that was game?" interrupted T. X.

"His left arm, sir."

"You're sure?"

"I'd swear to it, sir."

"Very well, go on."

"He came downstairs and went out and I never