The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-17
The SINGULAR EXPERIENCE OF MIR. j. SCOTT ECCLES
Sherlock Holmes A.. ConanDo

with him. though it proved a good deal
| queerer than ! thought.
II drove to the place-about two miles
on the south side of Esher. The house
was fair sized one. standing back from
the road, with Curving drive which
was banked with high evergreen shrubs
IL was an old tumbledown building in a
crazy state of dsrepair. When the trap
pulled up on the grassgrown drive in
front of the blotched and weather stained
door I had doubts as to my wisdom In
visiting a man whom knew so slightly.
He opened the door himself. however,
and greeted me with a great show of
| cordiality. I was handed over to the
manservant. a melancholy. swarthy in
dvidual. who led the way, my bag in
his hand to my bedroom. The whole
place was depressing. Our dinner was a
tete-aStete, and though my host did his
best to be entertaining, his thoughts
seemed to continually wander. and he
talked SO vaguely and wildly that l
could hardly understand him. He con-
tinually drummed HIS fingers on the
table, gnawed his nails and gave other
signs Of nervous impatience.
The dinner itself was neither we'll
StINtu not wen toohtu tht SiOOAiy
presence of the taciturn servant did not
help to enliven us. l can assure you
that many times In the course Of the
evening 1 wished that I could invent
some excuse which would take me back
to Lee.
"One thing comes back to my memory
which may have a bearing upon the
business that you two gentlemen are in
\ thntUht nnthinu nf II
the time. Near the end of the dinner a
note was handed in by the servant. l
noticed that after my host had read II
he seemed even more distract and
strange than before, but he made no
remark as to the contents.
"He gave up ali pretence at CONVERSE
ton and sat, smoking endless cigarettes.
lost in his own thoughts. About IL l
was glad to go to bed. Some time later
Garcia looked in at my door-the room
was dark at the time-and asked me II
I had rung. l said that I had not. He
apologized for having disturbed me so
late. saying that 1t was nearly O'Clock.
I dropped off after this and slept
soundly all night.
"And now ] come to the amazing part
of my tale When awoke 1t was broad
daylight. | glanced at my watch and
the time was nearly Q. | had particu-
larry asked to be called at s. so | was
very much astonished at this forgetful-
ness. | sprang up and rang for the
servant.
There was no response. I rang again
and again with the same result. Then
I came to the conclusion that the bell
was out Of order. l huddled on my
clothes and hurried down stairs in al.
exceedingly bad temper to order some
hot water. You can imagine my sur
prise when I found that there was no
one there.
II shouted in the hall. There was no
answer. Then / ran from room TO
room. All were deserted. My host had
shown me which was his bedroom the
night before, so I knocked at the door.
No reply. I turned the handle and
walked in. The room was empty and
the bed had never been slept in. He
had gone with the rest. The foreign
host, the foreign footman, the foreign
cook all had vanished in the night!
That was the end OF my visit to Wis
| terra Lodge"
Sherlock Holmes was rubbing his
hands and chuckling as he added this
bizarre incident to his collection OF
strange episodes.
"Your experience is. so far as I know,
perfectly unique" said he. May l ask.
| sir, what you did then?'
IT was furious. My first idea was
| that / had been the victim of some alb
surd practical joke. ! packed my things,
banged the hall door behind me and set
off for Esher with my bag in my hand.
called at Allan Bros, the chief land
agents in the village. and found that 1t
was from this firm that the villa had
been rented.
at struck me that the whole proceed
ing could hardly be for the purpose of
making fool of me and that the main
object must be to get out of the rent.
1t is late in March. so quarter day Is
at hand. But this theory would not
work. The agent was obliged to me
| for my warning. but told me that the
| rent had been paid in advance.
"Then I made my way to town and
called at the Spanish Embassy. The
man was unknown there. After this
| went to see Melville, at whose house !
| had first met Garcia. but I found that
| he really knew rather less about him
| than l did. Finally, when l got a reply
to my wire. came out to you, since !