me it is a stake for which a man might well play a desperate game and one more question dr supposing that anything happened to our young friend here � you will forgive the unpleasant � who would inherit the estate since sir charles s younger brother died unmarried the estate would descend to the who are distant cousins james is an elderly clergyman in thank you these details are all of great interest have you met mr james yes he once came down to visit sir charles he is a man of venerable appearance and of life i remember that he refused to accept any settlement from sir charles though he pressed it upon him and this man of simple tastes would be the heir to sir charles s thousands the hound of the he would be the heir to the estate because that is he would also be the heir to the money unless it were willed otherwise by the present owner who can of course do what he likes with it and have you made your sir no mr have not i ve had u time for it was only yesterday that i learned how stood but in any case i feel that the money should go with the title and estate that was my poor uncle s idea how is the owner going to restore the glories of the if he not money enough to keep up the property house land and dollars must go together quite so well sir henry i am of one mind with you as to the of your going down to without delay there is only one provision which i must make you certainly must not go alone dr returns with mc but dr has his practice to attend to and his house is miles away from yours with all the good will in the world he may be unable to help you no sir henry you must take with you a man who will be always by your side is it possible that you could come yourself mr if matters came to a crisis i should endeavour to be present in person but you can understand � � � three t h r e a i s that with my extensive consulting practice and with the constant appeals which reach me from many quarters it is impossible for me to be absent from london for an indefinite time at the present instant one of the most names in england is being by a and only i can stop a disastrous scandal you will see how impossible it is for me to go to whom would recommend then laid his hand upon my arm if my friend would undertake it there is no man who is better worth having at your side when you are in a tight place no one can say so more confidently than i the proposition took me completely by surprise but before i had time to answer seized me by the hand and wrung it heartily well now that is real kind of you dr said he you see how it is with me and you know just as much about the matter as i do if you will come down to hall and see me through i ll never forget it the promise of adventure had always a fascination for me and i was by the words of and by the eagerness with which the hailed me as a companion i will come with pleasure said i i do not know how i could employ my time better and you will report very carefully to me said when a crisis comes as it will do i the hound of the ba will direct how you shall act i suppose that t saturday all might be ready would that suit dr perfectly then on saturday unless you hear to the con we shall meet at the train from we had risen to depart when gave a cry of triumph and into one of the corners of the room he drew a brown boot from under a cabinet my missing boot he cried may all our difficulties vanish as easily sail but it is a very singular thing dr remarked i searched this room carefully before lunch and so did i said every inch of it there was certainly no boot in it then in that case the waiter must have placed it there while we were the german was sent for but professed to know nothing of the matter nor could any inquiry clear it up another item had been added to that constant and apparently series of small mysteries which had succeeded each other so rapidly setting aside the whole grim story of sir charles s death we had a line of inexplicable incidents all within the limits of two days which included the i i i three broken threads receipt of the printed letter the black bearded spy in the the loss of the new brown boot the loss of the old black boot and now the return of the new brown boot sat in silence in the cab as we drove back to baker street and i knew from his drawn brows and keen face that his mind like my own was busy in endeavouring to frame some scheme into which all these strange and apparently could be fitted all afternoon and late into the evening he sat lost in tobacco and thought just before dinner two were handed in tl first ran � have just heard that is at the hall � the second � visited twenty three hotels as directed but sorry to report unable to trace cut sheet of times � there go two of my threads there is nothing more than a case where everything goes against you we must cast round for another scent we have still the who drove the spy exactly i have to get his 