The Hound of the Baskervilles

Mr. Sherlock Holmes, who was usually very late in the mornings, saveupon those not infrequent occasions when he was up all night, was seated atthe breakfast table. I stood upon the hearth-rug and picked up the stick whichour visitor had left behind him the night before. It was a fine, thick piece ofwood, bulbous-headed, of the sort which is known as a "Penang lawyer." Justunder the head was a broad silver band nearly an inch across. "To JamesMortimer, 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 familypractitioner used to carry-dignified, solid, and reassuring.