The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-02-21

And cave the litter as it isl" he
| cried, m-ischievously. "Your tidiness
won't bear much strain after all, Wat
SON. But / should be glad that you
should add his case to your annals,
for there are points in it which make il
quite unique in the criminal records OF
this or, j believe, Of any other country.
A collection of my trifling achievements
would certainly be incomplete which
contained no account OF this very sin
gular business.
4 you may remember how the affair
} of the Gloria Scott, n my ~conveIsa-
ton with the unhappy man whose fate
| told you of, first turned my attention
in the direction Of the profession which
has become my life's work, You see
me now when my name has become
known far and wide, and whom | am
generally recognized both by the pub
lie and by the official force as being
a final court of appeal in doubtful
cases. Even when you knew me first,
at the time of the affair which yoii
have commemorate in a Study in
Scarlet ] had already established a
considerable. though not a very lucra-
Give, connection. You can hardly real
ize. then, how difficult I found it at
first, and how long l had to wait be-
fore 1 succeeded in making any head
way.
when I first came up to London |
had rooms in Montague street. Just
round the corner from the British Mu-
scum, and there I waited, filling in my
too abundant leisure time by studying
all those branches of science which
might make me more efficient. Now
and again cases came in my way, prin-
cipally through the Introduction of old
fellow-students, for during my last
years at the university there was q
good deal of ak there about myself
and my methods. The third of these
cases was that of the Musgrave Ritual,
and it is to the interest which was
aroused by that singular chain of
events, and the large issues which
proved to be at stake, that | trace my
first stride towards the position which
I now hold.
Reginald Musgrave had been in the
same college as myself, and | had some
slight acquaintance with him. He was
not generally popular among the UNI
dergradnates, though it always seemed
to me that what was set down as pride
was really an attempt TO cover ex-
IRENE natural diffidence. In appear
ance he was a man of an exceedingly
a%ristocratic type, thin, high-nosed and
large-eyed, with languid and yet court
ly He was, indeed, a scion
of one of the very oldest families in the
Kingdom, though his branch was a
cadet one which had separated from
the northern Musgraves some time in
the sixteenth century, and had cstab-
IfnlA1 af-a1F s4 x.aAt.rx C.t1aA- 49,.
the manor house of Hurlstone is per-
haps the Oldest inhabited building in
the county. Something of his birth
place seemed to cling to the a and
] never looked at his pale. keen face or
the poise Of his head without associ-
ating him with gray arehways and
mullioned windows and all the venera-
BILE wreckage Of a feudal keep. Once
or vice we drlfted into talk, and 1
a remember that more than onee he
expressed a keen interest in mN meth
DDS of observation and inference.
For four years | had seen nothing
Of him until one morning he walked
into my room in Montague street. He
had changed little. was dressed like a
young man of fashion-he was always a
bit of a dandy--and preserved the same
quiet, manner which had for
merly distinguished him.
How has all gone with you, Mus
grave?' / asked, after we had cordially
shaken hands.
"'You probably heard Of my poor
fathers DEATH said he; he was car
ried off about two years ago. Since
then l have, of course, had the Hurl-
stone estates to manage, and as l am
member for my district as well. my
life has been a busy one But | un-
derstand. Holmes, that you are turn
ing to practical ends those powers with
which you used to amaze usY
YES said l, ! have taken to living
by my Wits
tro BE Continued TOmOrrow.o J