The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Part 13 (1/2)

”They were certainly very er than any which he could have made, and were evidently quite fresh It rained hard this afternoon, as you know, and my patients were the only people who called It -room had, for some unknown reason, while I was busy with the other, ascended to the roo had been touched or taken, but there were the footprints to prove that the intrusion was an undoubted fact

”Mr Blessington seeht possible, though of course it was enough to disturb anybody's peace ofin an aret hiestion that I should come round to you, and of course I at once saw the propriety of it, for certainly the incident is a very singular one, though he appears to completely overrate its ihah I can hardly hope that you will be able to explain this remarkable occurrence”

Sherlock Hol narrative with an intentness which showed me that his interest was keenly aroused His face was as impassive as ever, but his lids had drooped more heavily over his eyes, and his smoke had curled up more thickly from his pipe to emphasize each curious episode in the doctor's tale As our visitor concluded, Hol up without a word, handed me my hat, picked his own from the table, and followed Dr Trevelyan to the door Within a quarter of an hour we had been dropped at the door of the physician's residence in Brook Street, one of those sombre, flat-faced houses which one associates with a West-End practice A san at once to ascend the broad, well-carpeted stair

But a singular interruption brought us to a standstill The light at the top was suddenly whisked out, and fro voice

”I have a pistol,” it cried ”I give you my word that I'll fire if you coeous, Mr Blessington,” cried Dr Trevelyan

”Oh, then it is you, doctor,” said the voice, with a great heave of relief ”But those other gentlemen, are they what they pretend to be?”

We were conscious of a long scrutiny out of the darkness

”Yes, yes, it's all right,” said the voice at last ”You can come up, and I am sorry if as as he spoke, andbefore us a singular-looking man, whose appearance, as well as his voice, testified to his jangled nerves He was very fat, but had apparently at so about his face in loose pouches, like the cheeks of a blood-hound He was of a sickly color, and his thin, sandy hair seemed to bristle up with the intensity of his emotion In his hand he held a pistol, but he thrust it into his pocket as we advanced

”Good-evening, Mr Holed to you for co round No one ever needed your advice more than I do I suppose that Dr Trevelyan has told you of this most unwarrantable intrusion into my rooms”

”Quite so,” said Holton, and why do they wish to molest you?”

”Well, well,” said the resident patient, in a nervous fashi+on, ”of course it is hard to say that You can hardly expect me to answer that, Mr Holmes”

”Do you mean that you don't know?”

”Come in here, if you please Just have the kindness to step in here”

He led the way into his bedrooe and co to a big black box at the end of his bed ”I have never been a very rich man, Mr Holmes--never made but one investment in my life, as Dr Trevelyan would tell you But I don't believe in bankers I would never trust a banker, Mr Holmes Between ourselves, what little I have is in that box, so you can understand what it means to me when unknown people force theton in his questioning way and shook his head

”I cannot possibly advise you if you try to deceive ”

Holht, Dr Trevelyan,” said he

”And no advice forvoice

”My advice to you, sir, is to speak the truth”

Afor home We had crossed Oxford Street and were half way down Harley Street before I could get a word fro you out on such a fool's errand, Watson,” he said at last ”It is an interesting case, too, at the bottom of it”

”I can make little of it,” I confessed

”Well, it is quite evident that there are two men--more, perhaps, but at least tho are deterton I have no doubt in my mind that both on the first and on the second occasion that young ton's rooenious device, kept the doctor fro”

”And the catalepsy?”

”A fraudulent ih I should hardly dare to hint as much to our specialist It is a very easy complaint to imitate I have done it myself”

”And then?”

”By the purest chance Blessington was out on each occasion Their reason for choosing so unusual an hour for a consultation was obviously to insure that there should be no other patient in the waiting-room It just happened, however, that this hour coincided with Blessington's constitutional, which seems to show that they were not very well acquainted with his daily routine Of course, if they had been merely after plunder they would at least have made some attempt to search for it Besides, I can read in a htened for It is inconceivable that this fellow could have made two such vindictive ene of it I hold it, therefore, to be certain that he does knoho these men are, and that for reasons of his own he suppresses it It is just possible that to-morrow may find him in a more cogested, ”grotesquely iht the whole story of the cataleptic Russian and his son be a concoction of Dr Trevelyan's, who has, for his own purposes, been in Blessington's rooht that Holmes wore an amused smile at this brilliant departure of mine

”My dear fellow,” said he, ”it was one of the first solutions which occurred to me, but I was soon able to corroborate the doctor's tale This young man has left prints upon the stair-carpet which made it quite superfluous for me to ask to see those which he had made in the room When I tell you that his shoes were square-toed instead of being pointed like Blessington's, and were quite an inch and a third longer than the doctor's, you will acknowledge that there can be no doubt as to his individuality But we may sleep on it now, for I shall be surprised if we do not hear so”

Sherlock Holmes's prophecy was soon fulfilled, and in a dra, in the first gli by ha for us, Watson,” said he

”What's the matter, then?”

”The Brook Street business”

”Any fresh news?”

”Tragic, but a up the blind ”Look at this--a sheet from a note-book, with 'For God's sake come at once--P T,' scrawled upon it in pencil Our friend, the doctor, was hard put to it when he wrote this Coent call”

In a quarter of an hour or so ere back at the physician's house He ca out to meet us with a face of horror

”Oh, such a business!” he cried, with his hands to his teton has coed hiht”

We had entered, and the doctor had preceded us into as evidently his waiting-roo,” he cried ”The police are already upstairs It has shaken me most dreadfully”

”When did you find it out?”

”He has a cup of tea taken in to hi When the maid entered, about seven, there the unfortunate felloas hanging in the middle of the room He had tied his cord to the hook on which the heavy la, and he had jumped off from the top of the very box that he showed us yesterday”

Holht

”With your pero upstairs and look into the matter”

We both ascended, followed by the doctor