403 Brook Street."
"Are you not the author of a monograph upon obscure nervous lesions?"
I asked.
His pale cheeks flushed with pleasure at hearing that his work was
known to me.
"I so seldom hear of the work that I thought it was quite dead," said
he. "My publishers gave me a most discouraging account of its sale.
You are yourself, I presume, a medical man?"
"A retired army surgeon."
"My own hobby has always been nervous disease. I should wish to make
it an absolute specialty, but, of course, a man must take what he can
get at first. This, however, is beside the question, Mr. Sherlock
Holmes, and I quite appreciate how valuable your time is. The fact is
that a very singular train of events has occurred recently at my
house in Brook Street, and to-night they came to such a head that I
felt it was quite impossible for me to wait another hour before
asking for your advice and assistance."
Sherlock Holmes sat down and lit his pipe. "You are very welcome to
both," said he. "Pray let me have a detailed account of what the
circumstances are which have disturbed you."
"One or two of them are so trivial," said Dr. Trevelyan, "that really
I am almost ashamed to mention them. But the matter is so
inexplicable, and the recent turn which it has taken is so elaborate,
that I shall lay it all before you, and you shall judge what is
essential and what is not.
"I am compelled, to begin with, to say something of my own college
career. I am a London University man, you know, and I am sure that
you will not think that I am unduly singing my own praises if I say
that my student career was considered by my professors to be a very
promising one. After I had graduated I continued to devote myself to
research, occupying a minor position in King's College Hospital, and
I was fortunate enough to excite considerable interest by my research
into the pathology of catalepsy, and finally to win the Bruce
Pinkerton prize and medal by the monograph on nervous lesions to
which your friend has just alluded. I should not go too far if I were
to say that there was a general impression at that time that a
distinguished career lay before me.
"But the one great stumbling-block lay in my want of capital. As you
will readily understand, a specialist who aims high is compelled to
start in one of a dozen streets in the Cavendish Square quarter, all
of which entail enormous rents and furnishing expenses. Besides this
preliminary outlay, he must be prepared to keep himself for some
years, and to hire a presentable carriage and horse. To do this was
quite beyond my power, and I could only hope that by economy I might
in ten years' time save enough to enable me to put up my plate.
Suddenly, however, an unexpected incident opened up quite a new
prospect to me.
"This was a visit from a gentleman of the name of Blessington, who
was a complete stranger to me. He came up to my room one morning, and
plunged into business in an instant.
"'You are the same Percy Trevelyan who has had so distinguished a
career and won a great prize lately?' said he.
"I bowed.
"'Answer me frankly,' he continued, 'for you will find it to your
interest to do so. You have all the cleverness which makes a
successful man. Have you the tact?'
"I could not help smiling at the abruptness of the question.
"'I trust that I have my share,' I said.
"'Any bad habits? Not drawn towards drink, eh?'
"'Really, sir!' I cried.
"'Quite right! That's all right! But I was bound to ask. With all
these qualities, why are you not in practice?'
"I shrugged my shoulders.
"'Come, come!' said he, in his bustling way. 'It's the old story.
More in your brains than in your pocket, eh? What would you say if I
were to start you in Brook Street?'
"I stared at him in astonishment.
"'Oh, it's for my sake, not for yours,' he cried. 'I'll be perfectly
frank with you, and if it suits you it will suit me very well. I have
a few thousands to invest, d'ye see, and I think I'll sink them in
you.'
"'But why?' I gasped.
"'Well, it's just like any other speculation, and safer than most.'
"'What am I to do, then?'
"'I'll tell you. I'll take the house, furnish it, pay the maids, and
run the whole place. All you have to do is just to wear out your
chair in the consulting-room. I'll let you have pocket-money and
everything. Then you hand over to me three quarters of what you earn,
and you keep the other quarter for yourself.'
"This was the strange proposal, Mr. Holmes, with which the man
Blessington approached me. I won't weary you with the account of how
we bargained and negotiated. It ended in my moving into the house
next Lady-day, and starting in practice on very much the same
conditions as he had suggested. He came himself to live with me in
the character of a resident patient. His heart was weak, it appears,
and he needed constant medical supervision. He turned the two best
rooms of the first floor into a sitting-room and bedroom for himself.
He was a man of singular habits, shunning company and very seldom
going out. His life was irregular, but in one respect he was
regularity itself. Every evening, at the same hour, he walked into
the consulting-room, examined the books, put down five and
three-pence for every guinea that I had earned, and carried the rest
off to the strong-box in his own room.
"I may say with confidence that he never had occasion to regret his
speculation. From the first it was a success. A few good cases and
the reputation which I had won in the hospital brought me rapidly to
the front, and during the last few years I have made him a rich man.
"So much, Mr. Holmes, for my past history and my relations with Mr.
Blessington. It only remains for me now to tell you what has occurred
to bring me her to-night.
"Some weeks ago Mr. Blessington came down to me in, as it seemed to
me, a state of considerable agitation. He spoke of some burglary
which, he said, had been committed in the West End, and he appeared,
I remember, to be quite unnecessarily excited about it, declaring
that a day should not pass before we should add stronger bolts to our
windows and doors. For a week he continued to be in a peculiar state
of restlessness, peering continually out of the windows, and ceasing
to take the short walk which had usually been the prelude to his
dinner. From his manner it struck me that he was in mortal dread of
something or somebody, but when I questioned him upon the point he
became so offensive that I was compelled to drop the subject.
Gradually, as time passed, his fears appeared to die away, and he had
renewed his former habits, when a fresh event reduced him to the
pitiable state of prostration in which he now lies.
"What happened was this. Two days ago I received the letter which I
now read to you. Neither address nor date is attached to it.
"'A Russian nobleman who is now resident in England,' it runs, 'would
be glad to avail himself of the professional assistance of Dr. Percy
Trevelyan. He has been for some years a victim to cataleptic attacks,
on which, as is well known, Dr. Trevelyan is an authority. He
proposes to call at about quarter past six to-morrow evening, if Dr.
Trevelyan will make it convenient to be at home.'
"This letter interest me deeply, because the chief difficulty in the
study of catalepsy is the rareness of the disease. You may believe,
than, that I was in my consulting-room when, at the appointed hour,
the page showed in the patient.
He was an elderly man, thin, demure, and common-place--by no means
the conception one forms of a Russian nobleman. I was much more
struck by the appearance of his companion. This was a tall young man,
surprisingly handsome, with a dark, fierce face, and the limbs and
chest of a Hercules. He had his hand under the other's arm as they
entered, and helped him to a chair with a tenderness which one would
hardly have expected from his appearance.
"'You will excuse my coming in, doctor,' said he to me, speaking
English with a slight lisp. 'This is my father, and his health is a
matter of the most overwhelming importance to me.'
"I was touched by this filial anxiety. 'You would, perhaps, care to
remain during the consultation?' said I.
"'Not for the world,' he cried with a gesture of horror. 'It is more
painful to me than I can express. If I were to see my father in one
of these dreadful seizures I am convinced that I should never survive
it. My own nervous system is an exceptionally sensitive one. With
your permission, I will remain in the waiting-room while you go into
my father's case.'
"To this, of course, I assented, and the young man withdrew. The
patient and I then plunged into a discussion of his case, of which I
took exhaustive notes. He was not remarkable for intelligence, and
his answers were frequently obscure, which I attributed to his
limited acquaintance with our language. Suddenly, however, as I sat
writing, he ceased to give any answer at all to my inquiries, and on
my turning towards him I was shocked to see that he was sitting bolt
upright in his chair, staring at me with a perfectly blank and rigid
face. He was again in the grip of his mysterious malady.
"My first feeling, as I have just said, was one of pity and horror.
My second, I fear, was rather one of professional satisfaction. I
made notes of my patient's pulse and temperature, tested the rigidity
of his muscles, and examined his reflexes. There was nothing markedly
abnormal in any of these conditions, which harmonized with my former
experiences. I had obtained good results in such cases by the
inhalation of nitrite of amyl, and the present seemed an admirable
opportunity of testing its virtues. The bottle was downstairs in my
laboratory, so leaving my patient seated in his chair, I ran down to
get it. There was some little delay in finding it--five minutes, let
us say--and then I returned. Imagine my amazement to find the room
empty and the patient gone.
"Of course, my first act was to run into the waiting-room. The son
had gone also. The hall door had been closed, but not shut. My page
who admits patients is a new boy and by no means quick. He waits
downstairs, and runs up to show patients out when I ring the
consulting-room bell. He had heard nothing, and the affair remained a
complete mystery. Mr. Blessington came in from his walk shortly
afterwards, but I did not say anything to him upon the subject, for,
to tell the truth, I have got in the way of late of holding as little
communication with him as possible.
"Well, I never thought that I should see anything more of the Russian
and his son, so you can imagine my amazement when, at the very same
hour this evening, they both came marching into my consulting-room,
just as they had done before.
"'I feel that I owe you a great many apologies for my abrupt
departure yesterday, doctor,' said my patient.
"'I confess that I was very much surprised at it,' said I.
"'Well, the fact is,' he remarked, 'that when I recover from these
attacks my mind is always very clouded as to all that has gone
before. I woke up in a strange room, as it seemed to me, and made my
way out into the street in a sort of dazed way when you were absent.'
"'And I,' said the son, 'seeing my father pass the door of the
waiting-room, naturally thought that the consultation had come to an
end. It was not until we had reached home that I began to realize the
true state of affairs.'
"'Well,' said I, laughing, 'there is no harm done except that you
puzzled me terribly; so if you, sir, would kindly step into the
waiting-room I shall be happy to continue our consultation which was
brought to so abrupt an ending.'
"For half an hour or so I discussed that old gentleman's symptoms
with him, and then, having prescribed for him, I saw him go off upon
the arm of his son.
"I have told you that Mr. Blessington generally chose this hour of
the day for his exercise. He came in shortly afterwards and passed
upstairs. An instant later I heard him running down, and he burst
into my consulting-room like a man who is mad with panic.
"'Who has been in my room?' he cried.
"'No one,' said I.
"'It's a lie!' He yelled. 'Come up and look!'
"I passed over the grossness of his language, as he seemed half out
of his mind with fear. When I went upstairs with him he pointed to
several footprints upon the light carpet.
"'D'you mean to say those are mine?' he cried.
"They were certainly very much larger than any which he could have
