There's a curious phrase in the beginning of A Study in Scarlet that requires a little more consideration. Do you know what it is? John Ball, Jr. did. 

And his theory about what that phrase signified is an intelligent and plausible one, lifted from a 1954 issue of The Baker Street Journal and The Baker Street Reader. Along the way, we uncover a surprising fact about Ball. And it's anything but a Trifle.

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