The star and Newark advertiser., 1908-02-17
kkY HAVE some papers here said
my friend. Sherlock Holmes.


the documents in the extraordinary
case of the Gloria Scott and this is the
message which struck Justice of the
Peace Trevor dead with horror when
he read it,
He had picked from a drawer q. lit
tile tarnished cylinder, and, undoing
the tape, he handed me a short note
scrawled upon a half-sheet of slate
,3gray paper.
"The supply of game for London is
going steadily up it ran. Head
keeper Hudson, we believe, has been
now told to receive all orders for fly
paper and for preservation of your hen
pheasant's lfe."
= AS 1 glanced up from reading this
ienigInatical message, I saw Holmes
chuckling at the expression of my face
"Yod look little bewildered," said he.
II cannot see how. such a message as
this could inspire horror. 1t seems to
me to be rather grotesque than other
wise
Very likely. Yet the fact remains
that the reader, who was a fine, ro-
sbust old man, was knocked clean down
fby 1t as IL it had been the butt end of
a pistol"
you arouse my curiosity" said l.
But why did you say just now that
there were very particular reasons why
: I should study this case?''
because il was the first in which
was ever engaged"
81 I had often endeavored to elicit from
}imy companion what had first turned
his mind in the direction of criminal
research, but had never caught him
Before in communicative humor. Now
he sat forward in his arm chair and
~, Il atr u ia
] ees. Then he lit his pipe and sat for
Some time smoking and turning them
over.
"You never heard me talk of Victor
Treyor2" he asked. 'He wes the only
friend L made during the two years 1
WAS at college. | was never a very
sociable fellow Watson, always rather
fond of moping in my rooms and work.
ing out my own little methods of
thought, so that l never mixed much
with the men of my year. Bar fencing
and boxing / had few athletic tastes.
and then my line of study was quite
distinct from that of the other fell
lows. so that we had no points Of con-
tact at all. Trevor was the only man
L knew, and that only through the
accident of his bull terrier freezing on
to my ankle one morning as / went
d0HNFt 10 tildpel- =
was a prosaic way of Forming a
Friendship, but 1t WAS effective. was
laiA by the heels for ten days, and
Tretor used to come in to inquire after
me, He was hearty, full-blooded fell
low. full or spirits and energy the very
opposite to me in most respects, but
we had some subjects in common, and
it was a bond of union when 1 found
that he was as friendless as l. Finally,
he. invited me down TO his fathers S
place at Donnithorpe in Norfolk, and l
accepted his hospitality for month
of the long vacation.
"Old Trevor was evidently man
of some wealth and consideration, j.
p and a landed proprietor. Donni-
thorpe is little hamlet just TO the
north of Langmere. in the country OF
the Broads. The house was an old
fashioned, widespread, oak-beamed
brick building, with fine lime-lined
avenue leading up to it. There was eX-
cellent wildduck shooting in the fens,
remarkably good fishing, small but
select library, taken over, as ] under
stood, from former occupant, and
tolerable cook, SO that he would be q
fastidious man who could not put In a
pleasant month there.
f"Trevor senior was widoWer, and
my friend his only son.
s'There had been a daughter, heard,
but she had died of diphtheria while on
a visit to Birmingham. The father in
terested me extremely. He was man
of little culture, but with a considerable
nmount of rude strength. both physi-
cally and mentally. He knew hardly
any books, but he had travelled far, had
seen much of the world, and had re-
membered all that he had learned. In
person he was a thick-set, burly man
with a shock of grizzled hair, brown,
weather-beaten face, and blue eyes
which were keen to the verge of fierce
ness. Yet he had a reputation for
kindness and charity on the country
side. and was noted FOR the leniency
If his sentences from the bench.
zone evening. shortly after my ar
rival. we were sitting over a glass OF
mort after dinner. when young Trevor
began to talk about those habits of OBJ
servation and inference which I had
already formed into a system, although
had not vet appreciated the part
which they were to play in my life.
The old man evidently thought that
his son was eXaggerating in his de-
! scription of one or two trivial feats
which l had performed.
Come, now, MT. I1Ouiles, seiu HS,
laughing good-humoredly I'm an ex-
cellent subject. If you can deduce any
thing from me-
"T fear there is not very much, !
answered; L might suggest that you
have gone about in fear of some per-
sonal attack within the last twelve
month";
"The laugh faded from his lips. and
he stared at me i'm great surprise.
We'll. that's true enough, said ne.
You know, Victor turning TO his son,
when we broke up that poaching gang
they swore to knife us. and Sir Edward
Holly has actually been attacked. I've
always been on my guard since then'
though have no idea how you
know it.
"'You have very handsome STICK,
answered. by the inscription J OBJ
oerved that you had not had 1t more
than a year. But you have taken some
pains TO bore the head of 1t and pour
melted lead into the hole so as to make
1t a formidable weapon. I argued that
you would not take such precautions
unless you had some danger TO fear
Anything elseT he asked. smiling.