The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Part 12 (2/2)
”My own hobby has always been nervous disease I should wish to make it an absolute specialty, but, of course, a et at first This, however, is beside the question, Mr Sherlock Holmes, and I quite appreciate how valuable your tiular train of events has occurred recently at ht they came to such a head that I felt it was quite i for your advice and assistance”
Sherlock Holmes sat down and lit his pipe ”You are very welcome to both,” said he ”Pray let me have a detailed account of what the circumstances are which have disturbed you”
”One or two of them are so trivial,” said Dr Trevelyan, ”that really I am almost ashamed to mention them But the matter is so inexplicable, and the recent turn which it has taken is so elaborate, that I shall lay it all before you, and you shall judge what is essential and what is not
”I ae career I am a London University man, you know, and I a my own praises if I say that my student career was considered by raduated I continued to devote 's College Hospital, and I was fortunate enough to excite considerable interest by y of catalepsy, and finally to win the Bruce Pinkerton prize and raph on nervous lesions to which your friend has just alluded I should not go too far if I were to say that there was a general iuished career lay before -block lay in my want of capital As you will readily understand, a specialist who aih is compelled to start in one of a dozen streets in the Cavendish Square quarter, all of which entail enor expenses Besides this preliminary outlay, he must be prepared to keep hie and horse To do this was quite beyond ht in ten years' tih to enable me to put up my plate Suddenly, however, an unexpected incident opened up quite a new prospect to entleer to ed into business in an instant
”'You are the sauished a career and won a great prize lately?' said he
”I bowed
”'Answer me frankly,' he continued, 'for you will find it to your interest to do so You have all the cleverness which makes a successfulat the abruptness of the question
”'I trust that I have my share,' I said
”'Any bad habits? Not draards drink, eh?'
”'Really, sir!' I cried
”'Quite right! That's all right! But I was bound to ask With all these qualities, why are you not in practice?'
”I shruggedway 'It's the old story More in your brains than in your pocket, eh? What would you say if I were to start you in Brook Street?'
”I stared at him in astonishment
”'Oh, it's for my sake, not for yours,' he cried 'I'll be perfectly frank with you, and if it suits you it will suit me very well I have a few thousands to invest, d'ye see, and I think I'll sink theasped
”'Well, it's just like any other speculation, and safer than most'
”'What am I to do, then?'
”'I'll tell you I'll take the house, furnish it, pay the maids, and run the whole place All you have to do is just to wear out your chair in the consulting-roo Then you hand over to me three quarters of what you earn, and you keep the other quarter for yourself'
”This was the strange proposal, Mr Holton approached ained and negotiated It ended inin practice on very ested He came himself to live with me in the character of a resident patient His heart eak, it appears, and he needed constant medical supervision He turned the two best roo-rooular habits, shunning coular, but in one respect he was regularity itself Every evening, at the sa-room, exauinea that I had earned, and carried the rest off to the strong-box in his own room
”I ret his speculation Froood cases and the reputation which I had won in the hospital broughtthe last few years I have made him a rich man
”So much, Mr Holton It only re ton came down to itation He spoke of solary which, he said, had been committed in the West End, and he appeared, I re that a day should not pass before we should add stronger bolts to our s and doors For a week he continued to be in a peculiar state of restlessness, peering continually out of the s, and ceasing to take the short hich had usually been the prelude to his dinner From hisor somebody, but when I questioned him upon the point he became so offensive that I was compelled to drop the subject Gradually, as time passed, his fears appeared to die away, and he had renewed his former habits, when a fresh event reduced him to the pitiable state of prostration in which he now lies
”What happened was this Two days ago I received the letter which I now read to you Neither address nor date is attached to it
”'A Russian noblelad to avail himself of the professional assistance of Dr Percy Trevelyan He has been for some years a victim to cataleptic attacks, on which, as is well known, Dr Trevelyan is an authority He proposes to call at about quarter past six to-, if Dr Trevelyan will make it convenient to be at home'
”This letter interested me deeply, because the chief difficulty in the study of catalepsy is the rareness of the disease You -rooe showed in the patient
”He was an elderly man, thin, demure, and commonplace--by no means the conception one forms of a Russian nobleman I was much more struck by the appearance of his coly handsome, with a dark, fierce face, and the limbs and chest of a Hercules He had his hand under the other's arm as they entered, and helped him to a chair with a tenderness which one would hardly have expected fro in, doctor,' said he to ht lisp 'This isimportance to me'
”I was touched by this filial anxiety 'You would, perhaps, care to re the consultation?' said I
”'Not for the world,' he cried with a gesture of horror 'It is more painful to me than I can express If I were to see my father in one of these dreadful seizures I am convinced that I should never survive it My own nervous system is an exceptionally sensitive one With your pero into my father's case'
”To this, of course, I assented, and the young ed into a discussion of his case, of which I took exhaustive notes He was not reence, and his ansere frequently obscure, which I attributed to his lie Suddenly, however, as I sat writing, he ceased to give any answer at all totowards hiht in his chair, staring at ain in the grip of his , as I have just said, was one of pity and horror My second, I fear, was rather one of professional satisfaction I made notes of idity of hismarkedly abnormal in any of these conditions, which harood results in such cases by the inhalation of nitrite of amyl, and the present see its virtues The bottle was downstairs inet it There was so it--five ine one
”Of course, one also The hall door had been closed, but not shut My page who admits patients is a new boy and by no means quick He waits downstairs, and runs up to show patients out when I ring the consulting-roo, and the affair reton came in fro to hiot in the way of late of holding as little coht that I should see anything ine , they both ca-room, just as they had done before
”'I feel that I owe you a great ies for my abrupt departure yesterday, doctor,' said my patient
”'I confess that I was very much surprised at it,' said I
”'Well, the fact is,' he remarked, 'that when I recover from these attacks one before I woke up in a strange room, as it seemed to me, and made my way out into the street in a sort of dazed hen you were absent'
”'And I,' said the son, 'seeing ht that the consultation had coan to realize the true state of affairs'
”'Well,' said I, laughing, 'there is no harm done except that you puzzled me terribly; so if you, sir, would kindly step into the waiting-room I shall be happy to continue our consultation which was brought to so abrupt an ending'
”'For half an hour or so I discussed that old gentle prescribed for hio off upon the arenerally chose this hour of the day for his exercise He came in shortly afterwards and passed upstairs An instant later I heard hi-room like a man who is mad with panic
”'Who has been in my room?' he cried
”'No one,' said I
”'It's a lie! He yelled 'Corossness of his language, as he seemed half out of his mind with fear When I went upstairs with hiht carpet
”'D'you mean to say those are mine?' he cried