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iic engineer, 1 6A. Victoria Street (3d floor) . " That was the
name, style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I
have kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair.
"You are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in
itself a monotonous occupation."
  "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and
laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note,
leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical
instincts rose up against that laugh.
  "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out
some water from a carafe.
  It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical
outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great
crisis is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more,
very weary and pale-looking.
  "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped.
  "Not at ail. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water,
and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks.
  "That‘s better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you
would kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where
my thumb used to be."
  He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave
even my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four
protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the
thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out
from the roots.
  "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must
have bled considerably."
  "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I
must have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I
found that it was still bleeding, sol tied one end of my handker-
chief very tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig."
  "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon."
  "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my
own province."
  "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a
very heavy and sharp instrument."
  "A thing like a cleaver," said he.
  "An accident, I presume?"
  "By no means."
  "What! a murderous attack?‘‘
  "Very murderous indeed."
  "You horrify me."
  I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally cov-
ered it over with cotton wadding and carbolized 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 evi-
dently 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 evi-
dence 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 com-
posed 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, or-
dered 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 l 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 27 pounds lOs. 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 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