"'And you can come up to-morrow evening, at seven, and let me know howyou are getting on. Don't overwork yourself. A couple of hours at Day'sMusic Hall in the evening would do you no harm after your labors.' Helaughed as he spoke, and I saw with a thrill that his second tooth uponthe left-hand side had been very badly stuffed with gold."
Sherlock Holmes rubbed his hands with delight, and I stared withastonishment 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 helaughed at my not going to Mawson's, I happened to notice that his toothwas stuffed in this very identical fashion. The glint of the gold ineach case caught my eye, you see. When I put that with the voice andfigure being the same, and only those things altered which might bechanged 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 shouldhave the same tooth stuffed in the same way. He bowed me out, and Ifound myself in the street, hardly knowing whether I was on my head ormy 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 fromhimself to himself? It was altogether too much for me, and I could makeno sense of it. And then suddenly it struck me that what was dark to memight be very light to Mr. Sherlock Holmes. I had just time to get up totown by the night train to see him this morning, and to bring you bothback with me to Birmingham."
There was a pause after the stock-broker's clerk had concluded hissurprising experience. Then Sherlock Holmes cocked his eye at me,leaning back on the cushions with a pleased and yet critical face, likea 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 whichplease me. I think that you will agree with me that an interview withMr. Arthur Harry Pinner in the temporary offices of the Franco-MidlandHardware Company, Limited, would be a rather interesting experience forboth of us."
"But how can we do it?" I asked.
"Oh, easily enough," said Hall Pycroft, cheerily. "You are two friendsof mine who are in want of a billet, and what could be more natural thanthat I should bring you both round to the managing director?"
"Quite so, of course," said Holmes. "I should like to have a look atthe gentleman, and see if I can make anything of his little game.What qualities have you, my friend, which would make your servicesso valuable? or is it possible that--" He began biting his nails andstaring blankly out of the window, and we hardly drew another word fromhim until we were in New Street.
At seven o'clock that evening we were walking, the three of us, downCorporation Street to the company's offices.
"It is no use our being at all before our time," said our client. "Heonly comes there to see me, apparently, for the place is deserted up tothe very hour he names."
"That is suggestive," remarked Holmes.
"By Jove, I told you so!" cried the clerk. "That's he walking ahead ofus there."
He pointed to a smallish, dark, well-dressed man who was bustling alongthe other side of the road. As we watched him he looked across at a boywho was bawling out the latest edition of the evening paper, and runningover among the cabs and busses, he bought one from him. Then, clutchingit in his hand, he vanished through a door-way.
"There he goes!" cried Hall Pycroft. "These are the company's officesinto which he has gone. Come with me, and I'll fix it up as easily aspossible."
Following his lead, we ascended five stories, until we found ourselvesoutside a half-opened door, at which our client tapped. A voice withinbade us enter, and we entered a bare, unfurnished room such as HallPycroft had described. At the single table sat the man whom we had seenin the street, with his evening paper spread out in front of him, and ashe looked up at us it seemed to me that I had never looked upon a facewhich bore such marks of grief, and of something beyond grief--of ahorror such as comes to few men in a lifetime. His brow glistened withperspiration, 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 hefailed to recognize him, and I could see by the astonishment depictedupon our conductor's face that this was by no means the usual appearanceof his employer.
"You look ill, Mr. Pinner!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, I am not very well," answered the other, making obvious effortsto pull himself together, and licking his dry lips before he spoke. "Whoare these gentlemen whom you have brought with you?"
"One is Mr. Harris, of Bermondsey, and the other is Mr. Price, of thistown," said our clerk, glibly. "They are friends of mine and gentlemenof 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 thecompany'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 youknow about it as soon as we come to any conclusion. And now I beg thatyou will go. For God's sake leave me to myself!"
These last
words were shot out of him, as though the constraint whichhe was evidently setting upon himself had suddenly and utterly burstasunder. Holmes and I glanced at each other, and Hall Pycroft took astep towards the table.
"You forget, Mr. Pinner, that I am here by appointment to receive somedirections 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 friendsshould not wait with you. I will be entirely at your service in threeminutes, if I might trespass upon your patience so far." He rose with avery courteous air, and, bowing to us, he passed out through a door atthe 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?"