"
"Tut, tut; we have solved some worse problems. At least we have
plenty of material, if we can only use it. Come, then, and,
having exhausted the Palmer, let us see what the Dunlop with the
patched cover has to offer us."
We picked up the track and followed it onwards for some distance;
but soon the moor rose into a long, heather-tufted curve, and we
left the watercourse behind us. No further help from tracks could
be hoped for. At the spot where we saw the last of the Dunlop tyre
it might equally have led to Holdernesse Hall, the stately towers
of which rose some miles to our left, or to a low, grey village
which lay in front of us, and marked the position of the
Chesterfield high road.
As we approached the forbidding and squalid inn, with the
sign of a game-cock above the door, Holmes gave a sudden groan
and clutched me by the shoulder to save himself from falling.
He had had one of those violent strains of the ankle which leave
a man helpless. With difficulty he limped up to the door, where
a squat, dark, elderly man was smoking a black clay pipe.
"How are you, Mr. Reuben Hayes?" said Holmes.
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