"Holmes, you are not in the middle of a case," said I, "so you have no excuse not to eat. You will be all the more prepared for the next case if you keep up your strength."

"If you would only turn around, you'd see there are more ways to be preoccupied than with a case."

The quality of his voice lent an image to my imagination of some strenuous endeavor. I put down my spoon and looked round. "Whatever are you doing?"

"Use my methods, Watson! What does it look like?"

"It honestly looks as if you have lost your mind. Why are you stalking about hunched over so, eyes fixed on the carpet? It seems you are following something, trying not to lose sight of it."

"Then perhaps I am. Is it impossible?"

I turned my chair round so I wouldn't have to keep holding my back in a twisted position. "Yes, unless you are following something much smaller than a human. Perhaps a dustball? But then, the window is not open. So it must be alive…yet I can see nothing from here."

All at once he pounced and came up again, gently holding something between thumb and forefinger. "You have eliminated the impossible, and here is what's left. You see, Watson, one can learn even from a beetle!"

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I like this beetle. I think he will come back. ^.^