He was to say than an important telegram was missing and he was to
ask to see the waste-paper of yesterday, but what he was really to look
for was the centre page of "The Times" with some holes cut in it. Holmes
showed him the page we had read.
The outside porter would in each case call for the hall porter, to whom
also Cartwright should give a shilling.  In twenty cases he would learn
that the waste of the day before had already been burned or removed.  In the
three other cases he would be shown a heap of paper among which he must
look for the page from "The Times." The odds were enormously against him
finding it, but Holmes gave him two lots of twenty-three shillings and ten
shillings over in case of emergencies, and told the lad to report by wire
to Baker Street before evening.
Holmes then sent a wire to himself to the Official Registry to discover
