When we returned from our stroll Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, informed Holmes that he had had a visitor that waited for him about an hour or so and had just left.
�Tut, tut, my dear fellow,� said he, when we got to our sitting room �I feared as much. This is not the first time that your excursions make us miss a potential client. But--halloa! What do we have here?�
He had picked from the floor what appeared to be a plain gold ring.
�From where could this have fallen?� he said in a tone that hinted interest. �It is certainly not yours nor mine. So then it must be from our unknown visitor. What do you make of it Watson?�
He tossed it to me. Upon closer examination I saw that it was a golden ring no doubt, but it was not as plain as I had first thought. It had a discoloured cavity on top of it; around this depression were the faded letters N, B,U, the initials PR, and the year 1859. It seemed to me that it had been incredibly damaged.
�I am sorry Holmes,� I said as I returned the ring to him, �I can only gather that our visitor appears to be a man, for it is not a woman�s ring, that he seldom takes his ring off and that he does a considerable amount of manual work for the item is in a pitiable state. I believe that other than that, you won�t find anything else.�
�Splendid, Watson! You have been practicing, eh? I consider myself lucky to have someone as you near. But surely the ring has not told us all it�s secrets yet. Let us see what else can we obtain from it.� ?With this he studied it for some minutes while he lit his long cherry-wood pipe. Not being content, he drew his powerful convex lens and observed it more attentively still. When he finished he leaned back with an air of satisfaction, then he addressed me:
�I am sorry to tell you that you didn�t draw enough inferences from all the data available and the ones you gave me are fallacious.�
�How come?� I asked gloomily.
�Well, not quite, for our visitor was a man, I have to give you credit for that. Your other two deductions, although incorrect, guided me to find something worthwhile.�
�What did you find then?�
�I found that our man is a Londoner. His family probably had tough financial problems during his youth, but notwistanding this impediment they managed to get him to a somewhat respectable college. After he finished his studies, his academical title provided him some prosperity, but was later forced to seek money somewhere else. This unhappy situation persisted until recent times; now he has a fair employment. Finally, he has around 55 years of age, suffers arthritis and most likely hates the ring.�
I rose annoyed from my chair.
�Holmes! You are certainly bluffing this time. You can not persuade me to believe that you obtained all that information from such trifling object.�
�Pray sit down Watson and calm yourself� he said with a laugh. �You know I specialize myself in trifling objects, as you call them. Do you not see how I drew up my conclusions?�