By thunder, if that chap can't find my missing boot there will be trouble.
I can take a joke with the best, Mr. Holmes, but they've got a bit over the mark this time."
"Still looking for your boot?"
"Yes, sir, and mean to find it."
"But, surely, you said that it was a new brown boot?"
"So it was, sir. And now it's an old black one."
"What! you don't mean to say ?"
"That's just what I do mean to say.
I only had three pairs in the world-the new brown, the old black, and the patent leathers, which I am wearing.
Last night they took one of my brown ones, and today they have sneaked one of the black.