The Haunted Hotel A Mystery of Modern Venice

Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, save upon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated at the breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth rug and picked up the stick which our visitorhad left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece of wood, bulbous headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Just under the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S., from his friends of the C.C.H.," was engraved upon it, with the date "1884." It was just such a stick as the old-fashioned family practitioner used to carry dignified, solid, and reassuring.