Read "The Red Thumbmark" by R. Austin Freeman online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
On the following morning, as I emerged from my room, I met Polton coming up with a tray (our bedrooms were on the attic floor above the laboratory and workshop), and I accordingly followed him into my friend's chamber.
"I shan't go out today," said Thorndyke, "though I shall come down presently. It is very inconvenient, but one must accept the inevitable. I have had a knock on the head, and, although I feel none the worse, I must take the proper precautions -- rest and a low diet -- until I see that no results are going to follow. You can attend to the scalp wound and send round the necessary letters, can't you?"