"My God!" cried our client, "what a blind beetle I have been!"
"Now you see the point about the handwriting. Suppose that some oneturned up in your place who wrote a completely different hand from thatin which you had applied for the vacancy, of course the game would havebeen up. But in the interval the rogue had learned to imitate you,and his position was therefore secure, as I presume that nobody in theoffice had ever set eyes upon you."
"Not a soul," groaned Hall Pycroft.
"Very good. Of course it was of the utmost importance to prevent youfrom thinking better of it, and also to keep you from coming intocontact with any one who might tell you that your double was at workin Mawson's office. Therefore they gave you a handsome advance on yoursalary, and ran you off to the Midlands, where they gave you enough workto do to prevent your going to London, where you might have burst theirlittle 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 themin it. The other is impersonating you at the office. This one actedas your engager, and then found that he could not find you an employerwithout admitting a third person into his plot. That he was mostunwilling to do. He changed his appearance as far as he could, andtrusted that the likeness, which you could not fail to observe, would beput down to a family resemblance. But for the happy chance of the goldstuffing, 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 Pycroftbeen doing at Mawson's? What should we do, Mr. Holmes? Tell me what todo."
"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 ofthe securities that they hold. I remember hearing it talked of in theCity."
"Very good; we shall wire to him, and see if all is well, and if a clerkof your name is working there. That is clear enough; but what is not soclear is why at sight of us one of the rogues should instantly walk outof the room and hang himself."
"The paper!" croaked a voice behind us. The man was sitting up, blanchedand ghastly, with returning reason in his eyes, and hands which rubbednervously 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 neverentered my head for an instant. T
o be sure, the secret must be there."He flattened it out upon the table, and a cry of triumph burst from hislips. "Look at this, Watson," he cried. "It is a London paper, an earlyedition of the Evening Standard. Here is what we want. Look at theheadlines: 'Crime in the City. Murder at Mawson & Williams's. Giganticattempted Robbery. Capture of the Criminal.' Here, Watson, we are allequally 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 ofimportance in town, and the account of it ran in this way:
"A desperate attempt at robbery, culminating in the death of one man andthe capture of the criminal, occurred this afternoon in the City. Forsome time back Mawson & Williams, the famous financial house, have beenthe guardians of securities which amount in the aggregate to a sum ofconsiderably over a million sterling. So conscious was the manager ofthe responsibility which devolved upon him in consequence of the greatinterests at stake that safes of the very latest construction havebeen employed, and an armed watchman has been left day and night in thebuilding. It appears that last week a new clerk named Hall Pycroft wasengaged by the firm. This person appears to have been none other thanBeddington, the famous forger and cracksman, who, with his brother, hadonly recently emerged from a five years' spell of penal servitude. Bysome means, which are not yet clear, he succeeded in winning, under afalse name, this official position in the office, which he utilized inorder to obtain moulding of various locks, and a thorough knowledge ofthe position of the strong room and the safes.
"It is customary at Mawson's for the clerks to leave at midday onSaturday. Sergeant Tuson, of the City Police, was somewhat surprised,therefore to see a gentleman with a carpet bag come down the steps attwenty minutes past one. His suspicions being aroused, the sergeantfollowed the man, and with the aid of Constable Pollock succeeded, aftera most desperate resistance, in arresting him. It was at once clearthat a daring and gigantic robbery had been committed. Nearly a hundredthousand pounds' worth of American railway bonds, with a large amountof scrip in mines and other companies, was discovered in the bag. Onexamining the premises the body of the unfortunate watchman was founddoubled up and thrust into the largest of the safes, where it would nothave been discovered until Monday morning had it not been for the promptaction of Sergeant Tuson. The man's skull had been shattered by ablow from a poker delivered from behind. There could be no doubtthat Beddington had obtained entrance by pretending that he had leftsomething behind him, and having murdered the watchman, rapidly rifledthe large safe, and then made off with his booty. His brother, whousually works with him, has not appeared in this job as far as canat present be ascertained, although the police are making energeticinquiries 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 villainand murderer can inspire such affection that his brother turns tosuicide when he learns that his neck is forfeited. However, we haveno 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."
Adventure IV. The "_Gloria Scott_"
"I have some papers here," said my friend Sherlock Holmes, as we satone winter's night on either side of the fire, "which I really think,Watson, that it would be worth your while to glance over. These are thedocuments in the extraordinary case of the Gloria Scott, and this is themessage which struck Justice of the Peace Trevor dead with horror whenhe read it."
He had picked from a drawer a little tarnished cylinder, and, undoingthe tape, he handed me a short note scrawled upon a half-sheet ofslate-gray paper.
"The supply of game for London is going steadily up," it ran."Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all ordersfor fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's life."
As I glanced up from reading this enigmatical message, I saw Holmeschuckling at the expression upon my face.
"You look a little bewildered," said he.
"I cannot see how such a message as this could inspire horror. It seemsto me to be rather grotesque than otherwise."
"Very likely. Yet the fact remains that the reader, who was a fine,robust old man, was knocked clean down by it as if it had been the buttend of a pistol."
"You arouse my curiosity," said I. "But why did you say just now thatthere were very particular reasons why I should study this case?"
"Because it was the first in which I was ever engaged."
I had often endeavored to elicit from my companion what had first turnedhis mind in the direction of criminal research, but had never caught himbefore in a communicative humor. Now he sat forward in this arm-chairand spread out the documents upon his knees. Then he lit his pipe andsat for some time smoking and turning them over.