As such, it is not as well-drawn out as some of Sharadindu's later works and relies heavily on Sherlock Holmes and Holmesian deductive reasoning for inspiration.
Byomkesh has noticed a rather unusual advertisement hidden away in the classifieds section of the Dainik Kalketu daily with the heading Pother Kanta (Thorn of the Road).
Translated the ad reads, "If anyone wants to remove the Thorn of the Road, stand next to and hold on to the lamp-post on the southwest corner of the Whiteway-Ladley store on Saturday evening at 5:30."
Byomkesh immediately inferred that the person posting the add went to great pains to remain anonymous and chose this cryptic message on purpose.
He also selected a meeting place in the centre of Hogg's Market in Calcutta at a very busy time of the day, so that he could pass by the responder without being detected.
All this light banter was interrupted by the entrance of a podgy, middle-aged man who introduced himself as Ashutosh Mitra, a single businessman by profession, and a resident of Nebutola.
Basically, metropolitan Calcutta had been plagued recently by the murders of quite a few influential businessmen who had all been killed by being shot with what resembled an Edison gramophone pin embedded in their hearts.
Ashutosh Mitra himself had been the subject of an attack the previous day but his pocket watch which he wore close to his chest had saved him from a death.
On spying on Mr. Mitra that afternoon, Byomkesh learned that he had a mistress, quite pretty according to his account, who lived in a separate house.
Byomkesh remarked that inside the envelope was the letter he had been expecting but since Ajit had been searching his own pockets incessantly, the advertiser had waited until he left the scene.
He mentioned in passing that he believed that the lawyer and the mistress had conspired to get Mr. Mitra killed by responding to the Pather kanta ad.
At the mentioned time while Ajit was on the street he heard the bell of a passing bicycle coming from the opposite direction and immediately fell to the ground.