crystal instance

The setting was just as she had described, heavily wooded on the side bordering the hall, and utterly exposed on the other. I selected the only available cover, and waited.

Watson, you have wasted your time.

I thought I did rather well.

No, your hiding place was ill-chosen. You should have been in the bracken on the other side of the road. Then that way you would have had a close view of this fascinating solitary cyclist. As it is, you were a hundred yards away and can tell me even less than Miss Smith reported to us last Saturday. You describe him as bending low over the handle bar?

Yes, quite low.

Thus concealment again, which in your case worked perfectly. ...
Oh know, you really have done remarkably badly. He goes back to the hall, and you come all the way back to London to call on a house agent.

Well, I found the information I was seeking.

You found the name Williamson, which conveys nothing to my mind.

Well, we know he is elderly and respectable.

And therefore unlikely to be the energetic cyclist who sprints away from that athletic young girl.

Well, what should have I done?

Gone to the nearest public house. That is the center of public gossip. They would have given every name from the master to the scullery mind. Instead of which you give me, ‘Williamson’. ...

So, what have we gained by your expedition.
The fact that the girl’s story is true; I never doubted that.
That there is a connection between the cyclist and the hall. I never doubted that, either.
That the hall is tenanted by a man called ‘Williamson’.
Who is the better for that?

I shall go back tomorrow and visit the public house.

No my dear Sir,

Do not commit to rashness because you are temporarily distressed.

We can do nothing useful until Saturday.

Did I really do remarkably badly?
Yes. (nonchalantly)