Let us hear what Dr.Jervis has to say." "I can make nothing of them," I answered.

"Polton showed me the drawing this morning, and then was terrified lest he had committed a breach of confidence, and I have been trying ever since, without a glimmer of success, to guess what they can be for." "H'm," grunted Thorndyke, as he sauntered up and down the room, teacup in hand, "to guess, eh?
I like not that word 'guess' in the mouth of a man of science.

What do you mean by a 'guess' ?" His manner was wholly facetious, but I professed to take his question seriously, and replied-- "By a guess, I mean a conclusion arrived at without data." "Impossible!" he exclaimed, with mock sternness.

"Nobody but an utter fool arrives at a conclusion without data." "Then I must revise my definition instantly," I rejoined.

"Let us say that a guess is a conclusion drawn from insufficient facts." "That is better," said he; "but perhaps it would be better still to say that a guess is a particular and definite conclusion deduced from facts which properly yield only a general and indefinite one.