I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered it
over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back without
wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time.
"How is that?" I asked when I had finished.
"Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. I
was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through."
"Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently
trying to your nerves."
"Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; but,
between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing evidence of this
wound of mine, I should be surprised if they believed my statement,
for it is a very extraordinary one, and I have not much in the way of
proof with which to back it up; and, even if they believe me, the
clues which I can give them are so vague that it is a question
whether justice will be done."
"Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem which
you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you to come to
my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the official
police."
"Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I should
be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of course I must
use the official police as well. Would you give me an introduction to
him?"
"I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself."
"I should be immensely obliged to you."
"We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to have a
little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?"
"Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story."
"Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an
instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my wife,
and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my new
acquaintance to Baker Street.
Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his sitting-room
in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Times and
smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed of all the
plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day before, all
carefully dried and collected on the corner of the mantelpiece. He
received us in his quietly genial fashion, ordered fresh rashers and
eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. When it was concluded he
settled our new acquaintance upon the sofa, placed a pillow beneath
his head, and laid a glass of brandy and water within his reach.
"It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, Mr.
Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself
absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are tired
and keep up your strength with a little stimulant."
"Thank you," said my patient. "but I have felt another man since the
doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has completed the
cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable time as possible, so
I shall start at once upon my peculiar experiences."
Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded
expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat
opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story
which our visitor detailed to us.
"You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor,
residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a hydraulic
engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my work during
the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & Matheson, the
well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, having served my time,
and having also come into a fair sum of money through my poor
father's death, I determined to start in business for myself and took
professional chambers in Victoria Street.
"I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in
business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so.
During two years I have had three consultations and one small job,
and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought me. My
gross takings amount to ?7 10s. Every day, from nine in the morning
until four in the afternoon, I waited in my little den, until at last
my heart began to sink, and I came to believe that I should never
have any practice at all.
"Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the office, my
clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who wished to see
me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with the name of
'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at his heels came
the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle size, but of an
exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have ever seen so thin a
man. His whole face sharpened away into nose and chin, and the skin
of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over his outstanding bones. Yet
this emaciation seemed to be his natural habit, and due to no
disease, for his eye was bright, his step brisk, and his bearing
assured. He was plainly but neatly dressed, and his age, I should
judge, would be nearer forty than thirty.
"'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. 'You
have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man who is not
only proficient in his profession but is also discreet and capable of
preserving a secret.'
"I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an
address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?'
"'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just at
this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both an
orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.'
"'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if I
say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional
qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter
that you wished to speak to me?'
"'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to the
point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute secrecy
is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and of course
we may expect that more from a man who is alone than from one who
lives in the bosom of his family.'
"'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely depend
upon my doing so.'
"He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I had
never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye.
"'Do you promise, then?' said he at last.
"'Yes, I promise.'
"'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No
reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?'
"'I have already given you my word.'
"'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning
across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was
empty.
"'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are
sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk in
safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to stare
at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look.
"A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun to
rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. Even my
dread of losing a client could not restrain me from showing my
impatience.
"'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time is
of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the words
came to my lips.
"'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked.
"'Most admirably.'
"'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I
simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which has
got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon set it
right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as that?'
"'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.'
"'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last
train.'
"'Where to?'
"'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders of
Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a train from
Paddington which would bring you there at about 11.15.'
"'Very good.'
"'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.'
"'There is a drive, then?'
"'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good
seven miles from Eyford Station.'
"'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there would
be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the
night.'
"'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.'
"'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient
hour?'
"'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to
recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a
young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the very
heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would like to draw
out of the business, there is plenty of time to do so.'
"I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they would be
to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to accommodate
myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to understand a little
more clearly what it is that you wish me to do.'
"'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which we
have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I have no
wish to commit you to anything without your having it all laid before
you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from eavesdroppers?'
"'Entirely.'
"'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that
fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found in
one or two places in England?'
"'I have heard so.'
"'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small
place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to
discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my
fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a
comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two very
much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, however, in
the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were absolutely
ignorant that their land contained that which was quite as valuable
as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my interest to buy their land
before they discovered its true value, but unfortunately I had no
capital by which I could do this. I took a few of my friends into the
secret, however, and they suggested that we should quietly and
secretly work our own little deposit and that in this way we should
earn the money which would enable us to buy the neighbouring fields.
This we have now been doing for some time, and in order to help us in
our operations we erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have
already explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon
the subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it
once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our
little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts
came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these fields
and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you promise me
that you will not tell a human being that you are going to Eyford
to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?'
"'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not
quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press in
excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out like
gravel from a pit.'
"'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress the
earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing what they
are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully into my
confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I trust you.'
He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at Eyford at 11.15.'
"'I shall certainly be there.'
"'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long,
questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank grasp,
he hurried from the room.
"Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very much
astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission which
had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was glad, for
the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked had I set a
price upon my own services, and it was possible that this order might
lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face and manner of my
patron had made an unpleasant impression upon me, and I could not
