"You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor?" he asked. "He was the onlyfriend I made during the two years I was at college. I was never a verysociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of moping in my rooms andworking out my own little methods of thought, so that I never mixedmuch with the men of my year. Bar fencing and boxing I had few athletictastes, and then my line of study was quite distinct from that of theother fellows, so that we had no points of contact at all. Trevor wasthe only man I knew, and that only through the accident of his bullterrier freezing on to my ankle one morning as I went down to chapel.
"It was a prosaic way of forming a friendship, but it was effective.I was laid by the heels for ten days, but Trevor used to come in toinquire after me. At first it was only a minute's chat, but soon hisvisits lengthened, and before the end of the term we were close friends.He was a hearty, full-blooded fellow, full of spirits and energy,the very opposite to me in most respects, but we had some subjectsin common, and it was a bond of union when I found that he was asfriendless as I. Finally, he invited me down to his father's place atDonnithorpe, in Norfolk, and I accepted his hospitality for a month ofthe long vacation.
"Old Trevor was evidently a man of some wealth and consideration, aJ.P., and a landed proprietor. Donnithorpe is a little hamlet just tothe north of Langmere, in the country of the Broads. The house wasan old-fashioned, wide-spread, oak-beamed brick building, with a finelime-lined avenue leading up to it. There was excellent wild-duckshooting in the fens, remarkably good fishing, a small but selectlibrary, taken over, as I understood, from a former occupant, and atolerable cook, so that he would be a fastidious man who could not putin a pleasant month there.
"Trevor senior was a widower, and my friend his only son.
"There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died of diphtheriawhile on a visit to Birmingham. The father interested me extremely.He was a man of little culture, but with a considerable amount of rudestrength, both physically and mentally. He knew hardly any books, buthe had traveled far, had seen much of the world. And had rememberedall that he had learned. In person he was a thick-set, burly man witha shock of grizzled hair, a brown, weather-beaten face, and blue eyeswhich were keen to the verge of fierceness. Yet he had a reputation forkindness and charity on the country-side, and was noted for the leniencyof his sentences from the bench.
"One evening, shortly after my arrival, we were sitting over a glass ofport after dinner, when young Trevor began to talk about those habitsof observation and inference which I had already formed into a system,although I had not yet appreciated the part which they were to play inmy life. The old man evidently thought that his son was exaggerating inhis description of one or two trivial feats which I had performed.
"'Come, now, Mr. Holmes,' said he, laughing good-humoredly. 'I'm anexcellent subject, if you can deduce anything from me.'
"'I fear there is not very much,' I answered; 'I might suggest thatyou have gone about in fear of some personal attack within the lasttwelvemonth.'
"The laugh faded from his lips, and he stared at me in great surprise.
"'Well, that's true enough,' said he. 'You know, Victor,' turning to hisson, 'when we broke up that poaching gang they swore to knife us, andSir Edward Holly has actually been attacked. I've always been on myguard since then, though I have no idea how you know it.'
"'You have a very handsome stick,' I answered. 'By the inscription Iobserved that you had not had it more than a year. But you have takensome pains to bore the head of it and pour melted lead into the hole soas to make it a formidable weapon. I argued that you would not take suchprecautions unless you had some danger to fear.'
"'Anything else?' he asked, smiling.
"'You have boxed a good deal in your youth.'
"'Right again. How did you know it? Is my nose knocked a little out ofthe straight?'
"'No,' said I. 'It is your ears. They have the peculiar flattening andthickening which marks the boxing man.'
"'Anything else?'
"'You have done a good deal of digging by your callosities.'
"'Made all my money at the gold fields.'
"'You have been in New Zealand.'
"'Right again.'
"'You have visited Japan.'
"'Quite true.'
"'And you have been most intimately associated with some one whoseinitials were J. A., and whom you afterwards were eager to entirelyforget.'
"Mr. Trevor stood slowly up, fixed his large blue eyes upon me with astrange wild stare, and then pitched forward, with his face among thenutshells which strewed the cloth, in a dead faint.
"You can imagine, Watson, how shocked both his son and I were. Hisattack did not last long, however, for when we undid his collar, andsprinkled the water from one of the finger-glasses over his face, hegave a gasp or two and sat up.
"'Ah, boys,' said he, forcing a smile, 'I hope I haven't frightened you.Strong as I look, there is a weak place in my heart, and it does nottake much to knock me over. I don't know how you manage this, Mr.Holmes, but it seems to me that all the detectives of fact and of fancywould be children in your hands. That's your line of life, sir, and youmay take the word of a man who has seen something of the world.'
"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimate of my abilitywith which he prefaced it, was, if you will believe me, Watson, the veryfirst thing which ever made me feel that a profession might be madeout of what had up to that time been the merest hobby. At the moment,however, I was too much concerned at the sudden illness of my host tothink of anything else.
"'I hope that I have said nothing to pain you?' said I.
"'Well, you certainly touched upon rather a tender point. Might I askhow you know, and how much you know?' He spoke now in a half-jestingfashion, but a look of terror still lurked at the back of his eyes.
"'It is simplicity itself,' said I. 'When you bared your arm to drawthat fish into the boat I saw that J. A. had been tattooed in the bendof the elbow. The letters were still legible, but it was perfectly clearfrom their blurred appearance, and from the staining of the skin roundthem, that efforts had been made to obliterate them. It was obvious,then, that those initials had once been very familiar to you, and thatyou had afterwards wished to forget them.'