St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-07-27
CHAPTER III-CovrINuEp

CE1At1IEtt 1lI--CONT1NUEDA
1t is paper of native Indian manu-
facture, z he remarked. 'sIt has at some
time been pinned to board. The dla-
gram upon it appears to be a plan of
part of a large building with numer-
ons halls, corridors. and passages At
one point is a small cross done in red
ink, and above it is 1887 from left, in
faded pencil-writing In the left-hand
corner is a curious hieroglyphic like
four crosses in line with their arms
tes..-L :->e. Insida Il -.
rough and coarse characters, The sign
of the four,-Jonathan Small, Mahomet
Singh, Abdu1lah Khan, Dost Akbar.
No, confess that I do not see how
this bears upon the matter. Yet it is
evidently a document of Importance.
It has been kept carefully in a pocket
book; for the one side is as clean as the
other.n
SIT was in his pocketbook that we
found it,
Preserve it carefully, then, Miss
Morstan, for it may prove to be OF use
to us. begin to suspect that this mat
ter may turn out to be much deeper
and more subtle than at first sup
posed. I must reconsider my ideas"
He leaned back in the cab, and could
see by his drawn brow and his vacant
eye that he was thinking intently.
Miss Morstan and I chabted in an un-
dertone about our present expedition
and it's possible outcome, but our COM
panion maintained his impenetrable re-
serve until the end Of our journey.
twas September evening, and not
yet seven o'clock, but the day had been
dreary one, and dense drizzling fog
lay low upon the great city. Mud
colored clouds dropped sadly over the
muddy streets. Down the Strand the
lamps were but misty splotches Of diff
fused light which threw a feeble cir
cular glimmer upon the Shiny pave
ment. The yellow glare from the shop
windows streamed out into the steamy,
vaporous air, and threw a mnrky,
shifting radiance across the crowded
thoroughfare. There was to my mind
something eerie and ghost-like in the
endless procession of faces which fitted
across these narrow bars of light-sad
faces and glad, haggard and merry.
Like all uman kind, they fitted from
the gloom into the light, and so back
into the gloom once more. / am not
subject to impressions, but the dull,
heavy evening, with the strange busi-
ness upon which we were engaged,
combined TO make me nervous and de-
pressed. I could see from Miss Nor
stan's manner that she was suffering
from the same feeling. Holmes alone
could rise superior to petty influences.
He held his open notebook upon his
knee, and from time to time he jotted
down figures and memoranda in the
light of his pocket lantern.
At the Lyceum theater the crowds
were already thick at the side en-
frances. In front a continuous stream
of hansoms and four-wheelers were
rafting up, discharging their cargoes
of shirt-fronted men and beshawled,
bediamonded women. We had hardly
reached the third pillar, which was our
rendezvous, before a small, dark, brisk
man in the dress of coachnsan ac-
costed us.
Are you the parties who come with
Miss MorstanS he asked.
81 am Miss Morstan, and these two
gentlemen are my friends" said she.
He bent pair Of wonderfully pene-
trating and questioning eyes upon US.
ssYou will excuse me, miss, he said,
with certain dogged manner, sbut I
was to ask you to give me your word
that neither of your companions is
police officer. =
81 give you my word on that" she
answered.
Il He gave shrin whistles on which
street Arab led across q four-wheeler
and opened the door. The man who
had addressed as mounted to the box,
while we took our places inside, We
had hardly done so before the driver
whipped up his horse, and we plunged