第 30 页

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 light-

ning across the room he flung open the door. The passage

outside was empty.

" 'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know the 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 thought-

ful 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 l; '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 ex-

plained, 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 think that his explanation of

the fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my

coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell

anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds,

ate a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having

obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue.

"At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my

station. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I

reached the little dim-lit station aher eleven o'clock. I was the

only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the

platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed

out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance

of the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side.

Without a word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a

carriage, the door of which was standing open. He drew up the

windows on either side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we

went as fast as the horse could go."

"One horse?" interjected Holmes.

"Yes, only one."

"Did you observe the colour?"

"Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the

carriage. It was a chestnut."

"Tired-looking or fresh?"

"Oh, fresh and glossy."

"Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray con-

tinue your most interesting statement."

"Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour.

Colonel Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles,

but I should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from

the time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He

sat at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than

once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me

with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good

in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I

tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we

were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out

nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now

and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the

journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the

conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the

road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive,

and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang

out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch

which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of

the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the most

fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that I had

crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, and I

heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage drove away.

"It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled

about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Sud-

denly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a long,

golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew broader, and

a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she held

above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. I

could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which the

light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich

material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as

though asking a question, and when my companion answered in

a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly

fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered

something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room

from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with

the lamp in his hand.

" 'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for

a few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a

quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the

centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel

Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the

door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and

vanished into the darkness.

"I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my

ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises

on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked

across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of

the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded

across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old

clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise

everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began

to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were

they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And

where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was

all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no idea.