                            THE STOCK-BROKER'S CLERK

     Shortly after my marriage I had bought a connection in the Paddington
     district. Old Mr. Farquhar, from whom I purchased it, had at one time
     an excellent general practice; but his age, and an affliction of the
     nature of St. Vitus's dance from which he suffered, had very much
     thinned it. The public not unnaturally goes on the principle that he
     who would heal others must himself be whole, and looks askance at the
     curative powers of the man whose own case is beyond the reach of his
     drugs. Thus as my predecessor weakened his practice declined, until
     when I purchased it from him it had sunk from twelve hundred to
     little more than three hundred a year. I had confidence, however, in
     my own youth and energy, and was convinced that in a very few years
     the concern would be as flourishing as ever.

     For three months after taking over the practice I was kept very
     closely at work, and saw little of my friend Sherlock Holmes, for I
     was too busy to visit Baker Street, and he seldom went anywhere
     himself save upon professional business. I was surprised, therefore,
     when, one morning in June, as I sat reading the British Medical
     Journal after breakfast, I heard a ring at the bell, followed by the
     high, somewhat strident tones of my old companion's voice.

     "Ah, my dear Watson," said he, striding into the room, "I am very
     delighted to see you! I trust that Mrs. Watson has entirely recovered
     from all the little excitements connected with our adventure of the
     Sign of Four."

     "Thank you, we are both very well," said I, shaking him warmly by the
     hand.

     "And I hope, also," he continued, sitting down in the rocking-chair,
     "that the cares of medical practice have not entirely obliterated the
     interest which you used to take in our little deductive problems."

     "On the contrary," I answered, "it was only last night that I was
     looking over my old notes, and classifying some of our past results."

     "I trust that you don't consider your collection closed."

     "Not at all. I should wish nothing better than to have some more of
     such experiences."

     "To-day, for example?"

     "Yes, to-day, if you like."

     "And as far off as Birmingham?"

     "Certainly, if you wish it."

     "And the practice?"

     "I do my neighbor's when he goes. He is always ready to work off the
     debt."

     "Ha! Nothing could be better," said Holmes, leaning back in his chair
     and looking keenly at me from under his half closed lids. "I perceive
     that you have been unwell lately. Summer colds are always a little
     trying."

     "I was confined to the house by a severe chill for three days last
     week. I thought, however, that I had cast off every trace of it."

     "So you have. You look remarkably robust."

     "How, then, did you know of it?"

     "My dear fellow, you know my methods."

     "You deduced it, then?"

     "Certainly."

     "And from what?"

     "From your slippers."

     I glanced down at the new patent leathers which I was wearing. "How
     on earth--" I began, but Holmes answered my question before it was
     asked.

     "Your slippers are new," he said. "You could not have had them more
     than a few weeks. The soles which you are at this moment presenting
     to me are slightly scorched. For a moment I thought they might have
     got wet and been burned in the drying. But near the instep there is a
     small circular wafer of paper with the shopman's hieroglyphics upon
     it. Damp would of course have removed this. You had, then, been
     sitting with our feet outstretched to the fire, which a man would
     hardly do even in so wet a June as this if he were in his full
     health."

     Like all Holmes's reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when
     it was once explained. He read the thought upon my features, and his
     smile had a tinge of bitterness.

     "I am afraid that I rather give myself away when I explain," said he.
     "Results without causes are much more impressive. You are ready to
     come to Birmingham, then?"

     "Certainly. What is the case?"

     "You shall hear it all in the train. My client is outside in a
     four-wheeler. Can you come at once?"

     "In an instant." I scribbled a note to my neighbor, rushed upstairs
     to explain the matter to my wife, and joined Holmes upon the
     door-step.

     "Your neighbor is a doctor," said he, nodding at the brass plate.

     "Yes; he bought a practice as I did."

     "An old-established one?"

     "Just the same as mine. Both have been ever since the houses were
     built."

     "Ah! Then you got hold of the best of the two."

     "I think I did. But how do you know?"

     "By the steps, my boy. Yours are worn three inches deeper than his.
     But this gentleman in the cab is my client, Mr. Hall Pycroft. Allow
     me to introduce you to him. Whip your horse up, cabby, for we have
     only just time to catch our train."

     The man whom I found myself facing was a well built,
     fresh-complexioned young fellow, with a frank, honest face and a
     slight, crisp, yellow mustache. He wore a very shiny top hat and a
     neat suit of sober black, which made him look what he was--a smart
     young City man, of the class who have been labeled cockneys, but who
     give us our crack volunteer regiments, and who turn out more fine
     athletes and sportsmen than any body of men in these islands. His
     round, ruddy face was naturally full of cheeriness, but the corners
     of his mouth seemed to me to be pulled down in a half-comical
     distress. It was not, however, until we were all in a first-class
     carriage and well started upon our journey to Birmingham that I was
     able to learn what the trouble was which had driven him to Sherlock
     Holmes.

     "We have a clear run here of seventy minutes," Holmes remarked. "I
     want you, Mr. Hall Pycroft, to tell my friend your very interesting
     experience exactly as you have told it to me, or with more detail if
     possible. It will be of use to me to hear the succession of events
     again. It is a case, Watson, which may prove to have something in it,
     or may prove to have nothing, but which, at least, presents those
     unusual and outré features which are as dear to you as they are to
     me. Now, Mr. Pycroft, I shall not interrupt you again."

     Our young companion looked at me with a twinkle in his eye.

     "The worst of the story is," said he, "that I show myself up as such
     a confounded fool. Of course it may work out all right, and I don't
     see that I could have done otherwise; but if I have lost my crib and
     get nothing in exchange I shall feel what a soft Johnnie I have been.
     I'm not very good at telling a story, Dr. Watson, but it is like this
     with me:

     "I used to have a billet at Coxon & Woodhouse's, of Draper's Gardens,
     but they were let in early in the spring through the Venezuelan loan,
     as no doubt you remember, and came a nasty cropper. I had been with
     them five years, and old Coxon gave me a ripping good testimonial
     when the smash came, but of course we clerks were all turned adrift,
     the twenty-seven of us. I tried here and tried there, but there were
     lots of other chaps on the same lay as myself, and it was a perfect
     frost for a long time. I had been taking three pounds a week at
     Coxon's, and I had saved about seventy of them, but I soon worked my
     way through that and out at the other end. I was fairly at the end of
     my tether at last, and could hardly find the stamps to answer the
     advertisements or the envelopes to stick them to. I had worn out my
     boots paddling up office stairs, and I seemed just as far from
     getting a billet as ever.

     "At last I saw a vacancy at Mawson & Williams's, the great
     stock-broking firm in Lombard Street. I dare say E. C. is not much in
     your line, but I can tell you that this is about the richest house in
     London. The advertisement was to be answered by letter only. I sent
     in my testimonial and application, but without the least hope of
     getting it. Back came an answer by return, saying that if I would
     appear next Monday I might take over my new duties at once, provided
     that my appearance was satisfactory. No one knows how these things
     are worked. Some people say that the manager just plunges his hand
     into the heap and takes the first that comes. Anyhow it was my
     innings that time, and I don't ever wish to feel better pleased. The
     screw was a pound a week rise, and the duties just about the same as
     at Coxon's.

     "And now I come to the queer part of the business. I was in diggings
     out Hampstead way, 17 Potter's Terrace. Well, I was sitting doing a
     smoke that very evening after I had been promised the appointment,
     when up came my landlady with a card which had "Arthur Pinner,
     Financial Agent," printed upon it. I had never heard the name before
     and could not imagine what he wanted with me; but, of course, I asked
     her to show him up. In he walked, a middle-sized, dark-haired,
     dark-eyed, black-bearded man, with a touch of the sheeny about his
     nose. He had a brisk kind of way with him and spoke sharply, like a
     man who knew the value of time.

     "'Mr. Hall Pycroft, I believe?' said he.

     "'Yes, sir,' I answered, pushing a chair towards him.

     "'Lately engaged at Coxon & Woodhouse's?'

     "'Yes, sir.'

     "'And now on the staff of Mawson's.'

     "'Quite so.'

     "'Well,' said he, 'the fact is that I have heard some really
     extraordinary stories about your financial ability. You remember
     Parker, who used to be Coxon's manager? He can never say enough about
     it.'

     "Of course I was pleased to hear this. I had always been pretty sharp
     in the office, but I had never dreamed that I was talked about in the
     City in this fashion.

     "'You have a good memory?' said he.

     "'Pretty fair,' I answered, modestly.

     "'Have you kept in touch with the market while you have been out of
     work?' he asked.

     "'Yes. I read the stock exchange list every morning.'

     "'Now that shows real application!' he cried. 'That is the way to
     prosper! You won't mind my testing you, will you? Let me see. How are
     Ayrshires?'

     "'A hundred and six and a quarter to a hundred and five and
     seven-eighths.'

     "'And New Zealand consolidated?'

     "'A hundred and four.'

     "'And British Broken Hills?'

     "'Seven to seven-and-six.'

     "'Wonderful!' he cried, with his hands up. 'This quite fits in with
     all that I had heard. My boy, my boy, you are very much too good to
     be a clerk at Mawson's!'

     "This outburst rather astonished me, as you can think. 'Well,' said
     I, 'other people don't think quite so much of me as you seem to do,
     Mr. Pinner. I had a hard enough fight to get this berth, and I am
     very glad to have it.'

     "'Pooh, man; you should soar above it. You are not in your true
     sphere. Now, I'll tell you how it stands with me. What I have to
     offer is little enough when measured by your ability, but when
     compared with Mawson's, it's light to dark. Let me see. When do you
     go to Mawson's?'

     "'On Monday.'

     "'Ha, ha! I think I would risk a little sporting flutter that you
     don't go there at all.'

     "'Not go to Mawson's?'

     "'No, sir. By that day you will be the business manager of the
     Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, with a hundred and
     thirty-four branches in the towns and villages of France, not
     counting one in Brussels and one in San Remo.'

     "This took my breath away. 'I never heard of it,' said I.

     "'Very likely not. It has been kept very quiet, for the capital was
     all privately subscribed, and it's too good a thing to let the public
     into. My brother, Harry Pinner, is promoter, and joins the board
     after allotment as managing director. He knew I was in the swim down
     here, and asked me to pick up a good man cheap. A young, pushing man
     with plenty of snap about him. Parker spoke of you, and that brought
     me here tonight. We can only offer you a beggarly five hundred to
     start with.'

     "'Five hundred a year!' I shouted.

     "'Only that at the beginning; but you are to have an overriding
     commission of one per cent on all business done by your agents, and
     you may take my word for it that this will come to more than your
     salary.'

     "'But I know nothing about hardware.'

     "'Tut, my boy; you know about figures.'

     "My head buzzed, and I could hardly sit still in my chair. But
     suddenly a little chill of doubt came upon me.

     "'I must be frank with you,' said I. 'Mawson only gives me two
     hundred, but Mawson is safe. Now, really, I know so little about your
     company that--'

     "'Ah, smart, smart!' he cried, in a kind of ecstasy of delight. 'You
     are the very man for us. You are not to be talked over, and quite
     right, too. Now, here's a note for a hundred pounds, and if you think
     that we can do business you may just slip it into your pocket as an
     advance upon your salary.'

     "'That is very handsome,' said I. 'When should I take over my new
     duties?'

     "'Be in Birmingham to-morrow at one,' said he. 'I have a note in my
     pocket here which you will take to my brother. You will find him at
     126b Corporation Street, where the temporary offices of the company
     are situated. Of course he must confirm your engagement, but between
     ourselves it will be all right.'

     "'Really, I hardly know how to express my gratitude, Mr. Pinner,'
     said I.

     "'Not at all, my boy. You have only got your desserts. There are one
     or two small things--mere formalities--which I must arrange with you.
     You have a bit of paper beside you there. Kindly write upon it "I am
     perfectly willing to act as business manager to the Franco-Midland
     Hardware Company, Limited, at a minimum salary of £500."'

     "I did as he asked, and he put the paper in his pocket.

     "'There is one other detail,' said he. 'What do you intend to do
     about Mawson's?'

     "I had forgotten all about Mawson's in my joy. 'I'll write and
     resign,' said I.

     "'Precisely what I don't want you to do. I had a row over you with
     Mawson's manager. I had gone up to ask him about you, and he was very
     offensive; accused me of coaxing you away from the service of the
     firm, and that sort of thing. At last I fairly lost my temper. "If
     you want good men you should pay them a good price," said I.

     "'"He would rather have our small price than your big one," said he.

     "'"I'll lay you a fiver," said I, "that when he has my offer you'll
     never so much as hear from him again."

     "'"Done!" said he. "We picked him out of the gutter, and he won't
     leave us so easily." Those were his very words.'

     "'The impudent scoundrel!' I cried. 'I've never so much as seen him
     in my life. Why should I consider him in any way? I shall certainly
     not write if you would rather I didn't.'

     "'Good! That's a promise,' said he, rising from his chair. 'Well, I'm
     delighted to have got so good a man for my brother. Here's your
     advance of a hundred pounds, and here is the letter. Make a note of
     the address, 126b Corporation Street, and remember that one o'clock
     to-morrow is your appointment. Good-night; and may you have all the
     fortune that you deserve!'

     "That's just about all that passed between us, as near as I can
     remember. You can imagine, Dr. Watson, how pleased I was at such an
     extraordinary bit of good fortune. I sat up half the night hugging
     myself over it, and next day I was off to Birmingham in a train that
     would take me in plenty time for my appointment. I took my things to
     a hotel in New Street, and then I made my way to the address which
     had been given me.

     "It was a quarter of an hour before my time, but I thought that would
     make no difference. 126b was a passage between two large shops, which
     led to a winding stone stair, from which there were many flats, let
     as offices to companies or professional men. The names of the
     occupants were painted at the bottom on the wall, but there was no
     such name as the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited. I stood
     for a few minutes with my heart in my boots, wondering whether the
     whole thing was an elaborate hoax or not, when up came a man and
     addressed me. He was very like the chap I had seen the night before,
     the same figure and voice, but he was clean shaven and his hair was
     lighter.

     "'Are you Mr. Hall Pycroft?' he asked.

     "'Yes,' said I.

     "'Oh! I was expecting you, but you are a trifle before your time. I
     had a note from my brother this morning in which he sang your praises
     very loudly.'

     "'I was just looking for the offices when you came.'

     "'We have not got our name up yet, for we only secured these
     temporary premises last week. Come up with me, and we will talk the
     matter over.'

     "I followed him to the top of a very lofty stair, and there, right
     under the slates, were a couple of empty, dusty little rooms,
     uncarpeted and uncurtained, into which he led me. I had thought of a
     great office with shining tables and rows of clerks, such as I was
     used to, and I dare say I stared rather straight at the two deal
     chairs and one little table, which, with a ledger and a waste paper
     basket, made up the whole furniture.

     "'Don't be disheartened, Mr. Pycroft,' said my new acquaintance,
     seeing the length of my face. 'Rome was not built in a day, and we
     have lots of money at our backs, though we don't cut much dash yet in
     offices. Pray sit down, and let me have your letter.'

     "I gave it to him, and her read it over very carefully.

     "'You seem to have made a vast impression upon my brother Arthur,'
     said he; 'and I know that he is a pretty shrewd judge. He swears by
     London, you know; and I by Birmingham; but this time I shall follow
     his advice. Pray consider yourself definitely engaged.'

     "'What are my duties?' I asked.

     "'You will eventually manage the great depot in Paris, which will
     pour a flood of English crockery into the shops of a hundred and
     thirty-four agents in France. The purchase will be completed in a
     week, and meanwhile you will remain in Birmingham and make yourself
     useful.'

     "'How?'

     "For answer, he took a big red book out of a drawer.

     "'This is a directory of Paris,' said he, 'with the trades after the
     names of the people. I want you to take it home with you, and to mark
     off all the hardware sellers, with their addresses. It would be of
     the greatest use to me to have them.'

     "'Surely there are classified lists?' I suggested.

     "'Not reliable ones. Their system is different from ours. Stick at
     it, and let me have the lists by Monday, at twelve. Good-day, Mr.
     Pycroft. If you continue to show zeal and intelligence you will find
     the company a good master.'

     "I went back to the hotel with the big book under my arm, and with
     very conflicting feelings in my breast. On the one hand, I was
     definitely engaged and had a hundred pounds in my pocket; on the
     other, the look of the offices, the absence of name on the wall, and
     other of the points which would strike a business man had left a bad
     impression as to the position of my employers. However, come what
     might, I had my money, so I settled down to my task. All Sunday I was
     kept hard at work, and yet by Monday I had only got as far as H. I
     went round to my employer, found him in the same dismantled kind of
     room, and was told to keep at it until Wednesday, and then come
     again. On Wednesday it was still unfinished, so I hammered away until
     Friday--that is, yesterday. Then I brought it round to Mr. Harry
     Pinner.

     "'Thank you very much,' said he; 'I fear that I underrated the
     difficulty of the task. This list will be of very material assistance
     to me.'

     "'It took some time,' said I.

     "'And now,' said he, 'I want you to make a list of the furniture
     shops, for they all sell crockery.'

     "'Very good.'

     "'And you can come up to-morrow evening, at seven, and let me know
     how you are getting on. Don't overwork yourself. A couple of hours at
     Day's Music Hall in the evening would do you no harm after your
     labors.' He laughed as he spoke, and I saw with a thrill that his
     second tooth upon the left-hand side had been very badly stuffed with
     gold."

     Sherlock Holmes rubbed his hands with delight, and I stared with
     astonishment at our client.

     "You may well look surprised, Dr. Watson; but it is this way," said
     he: "When I was speaking to the other chap in London, at the time
     that he laughed at my not going to Mawson's, I happened to notice
     that his tooth was stuffed in this very identical fashion. The glint
     of the gold in each case caught my eye, you see. When I put that with
     the voice and figure being the same, and only those things altered
     which might be changed by a razor or a wig, I could not doubt that it
     was the same man. Of course you expect two brothers to be alike, but
     not that they should have the same tooth stuffed in the same way. He
     bowed me out, and I found myself in the street, hardly knowing
     whether I was on my head or my heels. Back I went to my hotel, put my
     head in a basin of cold water, and tried to think it out. Why had he
     sent me from London to Birmingham? Why had he got there before me?
     And why had he written a letter from himself to himself? It was
     altogether too much for me, and I could make no sense of it. And then
     suddenly it struck me that what was dark to me might be very light to
     Mr. Sherlock Holmes. I had just time to get up to town by the night
     train to see him this morning, and to bring you both back with me to
     Birmingham."

     There was a pause after the stock-broker's clerk had concluded his
     surprising experience. Then Sherlock Holmes cocked his eye at me,
     leaning back on the cushions with a pleased and yet critical face,
     like a connoisseur who has just taken his first sip of a comet
     vintage.

     "Rather fine, Watson, is it not?" said he. "There are points in it
     which please me. I think that you will agree with me that an
     interview with Mr. Arthur Harry Pinner in the temporary offices of
     the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, Limited, would be a rather
     interesting experience for both of us."

     "But how can we do it?" I asked.

     "Oh, easily enough," said Hall Pycroft, cheerily. "You are two
     friends of mine who are in want of a billet, and what could be more
     natural than that I should bring you both round to the managing
     director?"

     "Quite so, of course," said Holmes. "I should like to have a look at
     the gentleman, and see if I can make anything of his little game.
     What qualities have you, my friend, which would make your services so
     valuable? Or is it possible that--" He began biting his nails and
     staring blankly out of the window, and we hardly drew another word
     from him until we were in New Street.

     At seven o'clock that evening we were walking, the three of us, down
     Corporation Street to the company's offices.

     "It is no use our being at all before our time," said our client. "He
     only comes there to see me, apparently, for the place is deserted up
     to the very hour he names."

     "That is suggestive," remarked Holmes.

     "By Jove, I told you so!" cried the clerk. "That's he walking ahead
     of us there."

     He pointed to a smallish, dark, well-dressed man who was bustling
     along the other side of the road. As we watched him he looked across
     at a boy who was bawling out the latest edition of the evening paper,
     and running over among the cabs and busses, he bought one from him.
     Then, clutching it in his hand, he vanished through a door-way.

     "There he goes!" cried Hall Pycroft. "These are the company's offices
     into which he has gone. Come with me, and I'll fix it up as easily as
     possible."

     Following his lead, we ascended five stories, until we found
     ourselves outside a half-opened door, at which our client tapped. A
     voice within bade us enter, and we entered a bare, unfurnished room
     such as Hall Pycroft had described. At the single table sat the man
     whom we had seen in the street, with his evening paper spread out in
     front of him, and as he looked up at us it seemed to me that I had
     never looked upon a face which bore such marks of grief, and of
     something beyond grief--of a horror such as comes to few men in a
     lifetime. His brow glistened with perspiration, his cheeks were of
     the dull, dead white of a fish's belly, and his eyes were wild and
     staring. He looked at his clerk as though he failed to recognize him,
     and I could see by the astonishment depicted upon our conductor's
     face that this was by no means the usual appearance of his employer.

     "You look ill, Mr. Pinner!" he exclaimed.

     "Yes, I am not very well," answered the other, making obvious efforts
     to pull himself together, and licking his dry lips before he spoke.
     "Who are these gentlemen whom you have brought with you?"

     "One is Mr. Harris, of Bermondsey, and the other is Mr. Price, of
     this town," said our clerk, glibly. "They are friends of mine and
     gentlemen of experience, but they have been out of a place for some
     little time, and they hoped that perhaps you might find an opening
     for them in the company's employment."

     "Very possibly! Very possibly!" cried Mr. Pinner with a ghastly
     smile. "Yes, I have no doubt that we shall be able to do something
     for you. What is your particular line, Mr. Harris?"

     "I am an accountant," said Holmes.

     "Ah yes, we shall want something of the sort. And you, Mr. Price?"

     "A clerk," said I.

     "I have every hope that the company may accommodate you. I will let
     you know about it as soon as we come to any conclusion. And now I beg
     that you will go. For God's sake leave me to myself!"

     These last words were shot out of him, as though the constraint which
     he was evidently setting upon himself had suddenly and utterly burst
     asunder. Holmes and I glanced at each other, and Hall Pycroft took a
     step towards the table.

     "You forget, Mr. Pinner, that I am here by appointment to receive
     some directions from you," said he.

     "Certainly, Mr. Pycroft, certainly," the other resumed in a calmer
     tone. "You may wait here a moment; and there is no reason why your
     friends should not wait with you. I will be entirely at your service
     in three minutes, if I might trespass upon your patience so far." He
     rose with a very courteous air, and, bowing to us, he passed out
     through a door at the farther end of the room, which he closed behind
     him.

     "What now?" whispered Holmes. "Is he giving us the slip?"

     "Impossible," answered Pycroft.

     "Why so?"

     "That door leads into an inner room."

     "There is no exit?"

     "None."

     "Is it furnished?"

     "It was empty yesterday."

     "Then what on earth can he be doing? There is something which I don't
     understand in his manner. If ever a man was three parts mad with
     terror, that man's name is Pinner. What can have put the shivers on
     him?"

     "He suspects that we are detectives," I suggested.

     "That's it," cried Pycroft.

     Holmes shook his head. "He did not turn pale. He was pale when we
     entered the room," said he. "It is just possible that--"

     His words were interrupted by a sharp rat-tat from the direction of
     the inner door.

     "What the deuce is he knocking at his own door for?" cried the clerk.

     Again and much louder cam the rat-tat-tat. We all gazed expectantly
     at the closed door. Glancing at Holmes, I saw his face turn rigid,
     and he leaned forward in intense excitement. Then suddenly came a low
     guggling, gargling sound, and a brisk drumming upon woodwork. Holmes
     sprang frantically across the room and pushed at the door. It was
     fastened on the inner side. Following his example, we threw ourselves
     upon it with all our weight. One hinge snapped, then the other, and
     down came the door with a crash. Rushing over it, we found ourselves
     in the inner room. It was empty.

     But it was only for a moment that we were at fault. At one corner,
     the corner nearest the room which we had left, there was a second
     door. Holmes sprang to it and pulled it open. A coat and waistcoat
     were lying on the floor, and from a hook behind the door, with his
     own braces round his neck, was hanging the managing director of the
     Franco-Midland Hardware Company. His knees were drawn up, his head
     hung at a dreadful angle to his body, and the clatter of his heels
     against the door made the noise which had broken in upon our
     conversation. In an instant I had caught him round the waist, and
     held him up while Holmes and Pycroft untied the elastic bands which
     had disappeared between the livid creases of skin. Then we carried
     him into the other room, where he lay with a clay-colored face,
     puffing his purple lips in and out with every breath--a dreadful
     wreck of all that he had been but five minutes before.

     "What do you think of him, Watson?" asked Holmes.

     I stooped over him and examined him. His pulse was feeble and
     intermittent, but his breathing grew longer, and there was a little
     shivering of his eyelids, which showed a thin white slit of ball
     beneath.

     "It has been touch and go with him," said I, "but he'll live now.
     Just open that window, and hand me the water carafe." I undid his
     collar, poured the cold water over his face, and raised and sank his
     arms until he drew a long, natural breath. "It's only a question of
     time now," said I, as I turned away from him.

     Holmes stood by the table, with his hands deep in his trouser's
     pockets and his chin upon his breast.

     "I suppose we ought to call the police in now," said he. "And yet I
     confess that I'd like to give them a complete case when they come."

     "It's a blessed mystery to me," cried Pycroft, scratching his head.
     "Whatever they wanted to bring me all the way up here for, and
     then--"

     "Pooh! All that is clear enough," said Holmes impatiently. "It is
     this last sudden move."

     "You understand the rest, then?"

     "I think that it is fairly obvious. What do you say, Watson?"

     I shrugged my shoulders. "I must confess that I am out of my depths,"
     said I.

     "Oh surely if you consider the events at first they can only point to
     one conclusion."

     "What do you make of them?"

     "Well, the whole thing hinges upon two points. The first is the
     making of Pycroft write a declaration by which he entered the service
     of this preposterous company. Do you not see how very suggestive that
     is?"

     "I am afraid I miss the point."

     "Well, why did they want him to do it? Not as a business matter, for
     these arrangements are usually verbal, and there was no earthly
     business reason why this should be an exception. Don't you see, my
     young friend, that they were very anxious to obtain a specimen of
     your handwriting, and had no other way of doing it?"

     "And why?"

     "Quite so. Why? When we answer that we have made some progress with
     our little problem. Why? There can be only one adequate reason.
     Someone wanted to learn to imitate your writing, and had to procure a
     specimen of it first. And now if we pass on to the second point we
     find that each throws light upon the other. That point is the request
     made by Pinner that you should not resign your place, but should
     leave the manager of this important business in the full expectation
     that a Mr. Hall Pycroft, whom he had never seen, was about to enter
     the office upon the Monday morning."

     "My God!" cried our client, "what a blind beetle I have been!"

     "Now you see the point about the handwriting. Suppose that some one
     turned up in your place who wrote a completely different hand from
     that in which you had applied for the vacancy, of course the game
     would have been up. But in the interval the rogue had learned to
     imitate you, and his position was therefore secure, as I presume that
     nobody in the office had ever set eyes upon you."

     "Not a soul," groaned Hall Pycroft.

     "Very good. Of course it was of the utmost importance to prevent you
     from thinking better of it, and also to keep you from coming into
     contact with any one who might tell you that your double was at work
     in Mawson's office. Therefore they gave you a handsome advance on
     your salary, and ran you off to the Midlands, where they gave you
     enough work to do to prevent your going to London, where you might
     have burst their little game up. That is all plain enough."

     "But why should this man pretend to be his own brother?"

     "Well, that is pretty clear also. There are evidently only two of
     them in it. The other is impersonating you at the office. This one
     acted as your engager, and then found that he could not find you an
     employer without admitting a third person into his plot. That he was
     most unwilling to do. He changed his appearance as far as he could,
     and trusted that the likeness, which you could not fail to observe,
     would be put down to a family resemblance. But for the happy chance
     of the gold stuffing, your suspicions would probably never have been
     aroused."

     Hall Pycroft shook his clinched hands in the air. "Good Lord!" he
     cried, "while I have been fooled in this way, what has this other
     Hall Pycroft been doing at Mawson's? What should we do, Mr. Holmes?
     Tell me what to do."

     "We must wire to Mawson's."

     "They shut at twelve on Saturdays."

     "Never mind. There may be some door-keeper or attendant--"

     "Ah yes, they keep a permanent guard there on account of the value of
     the securities that they hold. I remember hearing it talked of in the
     City."

     "Very good; we shall wire to him, and see if all is well, and if a
     clerk of your name is working there. That is clear enough; but what
     is not so clear is why at sight of us one of the rogues should
     instantly walk out of the room and hang himself."

     "The paper!" croaked a voice behind us. The man was sitting up,
     blanched and ghastly, with returning reason in his eyes, and hands
     which rubbed nervously at the broad red band which still encircled
     his throat.

     "The paper! Of course!" yelled Holmes, in a paroxysm of excitement.
     "Idiot that I was! I thought so must of our visit that the paper
     never entered my head for an instant. To be sure, the secret must be
     there." He flattened it out upon the table, and a cry of triumph
     burst from his lips. "Look at this, Watson," he cried. "It is a
     London paper, an early edition of the Evening Standard. Here is what
     we want. Look at the headlines: 'Crime in the City. Murder at Mawson
     & Williams's. Gigantic attempted Robbery. Capture of the Criminal.'
     Here, Watson, we are all equally anxious to hear it, so kindly read
     it aloud to us."

     It appeared from its position in the paper to have been the one event
     of importance in town, and the account of it ran in this way:

     "A desperate attempt at robbery, culminating in the death of one man
     and the capture of the criminal, occurred this afternoon in the City.
     For some time back Mawson & Williams, the famous financial house,
     have been the guardians of securities which amount in the aggregate
     to a sum of considerably over a million sterling. So conscious was
     the manager of the responsibility which devolved upon him in
     consequence of the great interests at stake that safes of the very
     latest construction have been employed, and an armed watchman has
     been left day and night in the building. It appears that last week a
     new clerk named Hall Pycroft was engaged by the firm. This person
     appears to have been none other that Beddington, the famous forger
     and cracksman, who, with his brother, had only recently emerged from
     a five years' spell of penal servitude. By some means, which are not
     yet clear, he succeeded in winning, under a false name, this official
     position in the office, which he utilized in order to obtain moulding
     of various locks, and a thorough knowledge of the position of the
     strong room and the safes.
     "It is customary at Mawson's for the clerks to leave at midday on
     Saturday. Sergeant Tuson, of the City Police, was somewhat surprised,
     therefore to see a gentleman with a carpet bag come down the steps at
     twenty minutes past one. His suspicions being aroused, the sergeant
     followed the man, and with the aid of Constable Pollack succeeded,
     after a most desperate resistance, in arresting him. It was at once
     clear that a daring and gigantic robbery had been committed. Nearly a
     hundred thousand pounds' worth of American railway bonds, with a
     large amount of scrip in mines and other companies, was discovered in
     the bag. On examining the premises the body of the unfortunate
     watchman was found doubled up and thrust into the largest of the
     safes, where it would not have been discovered until Monday morning
     had it not been for the prompt action of Sergeant Tuson. The man's
     skull had been shattered by a blow from a poker delivered from
     behind. There could be no doubt that Beddington had obtained entrance
     by pretending that he had left something behind him, and having
     murdered the watchman, rapidly rifled the large safe, and then made
     off with his booty. His brother, who usually works with him, has not
     appeared in this job as far as can at present be ascertained,
     although the police are making energetic inquiries as to his
     whereabouts."

     "Well, we may save the police some little trouble in that direction,"
     said Holmes, glancing at the haggard figure huddled up by the window.
     "Human nature is a strange mixture, Watson. You see that even a
     villain and murderer can inspire such affection that his brother
     turns to suicide when he learns that his neck is forfeited. However,
     we have no choice as to our action. The doctor and I will remain on
     guard, Mr. Pycroft, if you will have the kindness to step out for the
     police."

