                                      1893
                                SHERLOCK HOLMES
                            THE STOCK-BROKER'S CLERK
                           by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
                 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 connection 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 neighbour'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 your 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 neighbour, rushed upstairs
to explain the matter to my wife, and joined Holmes upon the doorstep.
  "Your neighbour 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 moustache. 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 labelled 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 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 outre 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 soft Johnny 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
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
have 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 to-night. 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 over-riding
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 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 deserts. 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
L500."'
  "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 aH 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 B 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 daresay 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 he 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 B 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
labours.' 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 staffed 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 doorway.
  "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 this matter. 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 came 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-coloured 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 trousers'
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 someone
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 anyone 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 clenched 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 much of our visit that the paper never
entered my head for an instant. To be sure, the secret must lie
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 than Beddington, the famous forger and
cracksman, who, with his brother, has 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 mouldings
of various locks, and a thorough knowledge of the position of the
strongroom 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 Pollock
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 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."
                                    THE END
