"Prints it?"

　　"Yes, sir, prints it in pencil. just the word, nothing more.Here's one I brought to show you- SOAP. Here's another- MATCH. This isone he left the first morning- DAILY GAZETTE. I leave that paperwith his breakfast every morning."

　　"Dear me, Watson," said Holmes, staring with great curiosity atthe slips of foolscap which the landlady had handed to him, "this iscertainly a little unusual. Seclusion I can understand; but why print?Printing is a clumsy process. Why not write? What would it suggestWatson?"

　　"That he desired to conceal his handwriting."

　　"But why? What can it matter to him that his landlady should havea word of his writing? Still, it may be as you say. Then, again, whysuch laconic messages?"

　　"I cannot imagine."

　　"It opens a pleasing field for intelligent speculation. The wordsare written with a broad-pointed, violet-tinted pencil of a notunusual pattern. You will observe that the paper is torn away at theside here after the printing was done, so that the 'S' of 'SOAP' ispartly gone. Suggestive, Watson, is it not?"

　　"Of caution?"

　　"Exactly. There was evidently some mark, some thumbprint,something which might give a clue to the person's identity. Now,Mrs. Warren, you say that the man was of middle size, dark, andbearded. What age would he be?"

　　"Youngish, sir- not over thirty."

　　"Well, can you give me no further indications?"

　　"He spoke good English, sir, and yet I thought he was a foreigner byhis accent."

　　"And he was well dressed?"

　　"Very smartly dressed, sir- quite the gentleman. Dark clothes-nothing you would note."

　　"He gave no name?"

　　"No, sir."

　　"And has had no letters or callers?"