Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-07-04
CHAPTER Iu-cosrrsuxp


1t Is paper o. native Indian manu-
facture," he remarked. lit has At some
time been pinned to board. The dla-
gram upon 1t appears to be plan Of
part OF a large building with numer-
Gus halls, corridors. and passages At
one point Is small cross done in red
ink and above it is '3-s7 from left in
faded pencil-writing. In the 1eft-hand
corner Is a curious hieroglyphic like
four crosses in a line with their arms
touching Beside it is written, IN very
rough and coarse characters, The sign
OF the fOur,-Jonathan Small, Mahomet
Singh AbduIlah Khan, Dost Akbar.'
No. confess that / do not see how
this bears upon the matter. Yet It IS
evidently a decumera of importance.
1t has been kept carefully IN pocket
book; for the one side is as clean as the
other"
1T was in his pockettoek that we
found it,
Preserve It carefully, then Miss.
Morstan, for it may prove to be OF use
to us i 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 chatted in an I'M
dertone about our present expedition
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
a dreary one. and dense drilling 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 murky.
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 CT light-sad
faces and glad. haggard and merry.
Like all human 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 bust
ness upon which we were engaged.
combined to make me nervous and de-
pressed. I could see from Miss Nor
STAINS manner that she was suffering
from the same feeling. Holmes alone
could rise superior to petty influences.
He held his open notebook upon his
= L
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 continuous stream
Of hansoms and four-whee1ers were
rafting up. discharging their cargoes
of shirt-fronted men and beshawied,
bediamonded women. We had hardly
reached the third pillar, which was our
rendezvous, before small, dark, brisk
man in the dress of a coachman &C
eosted us.
Are you the parties who come with
Miss Morstan?- he asked.
Il am Miss Morstan, and these two
gentlemen are my friends said she.
He bent pair of wonderfully pene-
trating and questioning eyes upon us
You will excuse me. miss" he said.
with certain logged manner, but I
was to ask you to give me your word
that neither of your companions is a
police officer
Il give You my word on that" she
answered.
lie gave shrill whistle, on which o
street Arab led across a four-wheeler
nr1aro1 tho lnfS. Tho who
had addressed US mounted to the box,
while we took our places inside. We
had hardly done so before the driver