The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1921-09-12

Have some papers here" said my
friend, Sherlock Holmes, as we sat
one winters night on either side Of
the fire, (which / really think, Wat
son, that it would be worth your
while to glance over. These are 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 lit
tie furnished cylinder, and undoing the
tape, he handed me a short note
scrawled upon a half-sheet of slate
gray 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-pheasants life"
AS | glanced up from reading this
enigmatical message, l saw Holmes
chuckling at the expression upon my
face.
You look a little bewildered," said
81 cannot see how such a message
as this could inspire horror. Il seems
to me to be rather grotesque than
otherwise"
Every likely. Yet the fact remains
that the reader, who was a fine, ro-
bust old man was knocked clean down
by it as If it had been the butt end of
pistol"
You arouse my curiosity" said l.
But why did you say just now that
there were very particular reasons
why / should study this case?"
Because it was the first in which
was ever engaged"
had often endeavored to elicit from
my companion what had first turned
his mind in the direction of criminal
research, but had never caught him
before in a communicative humor
Now he sat forward in his armchair
and spread out the documents upon
his knees. Then he lit his pipe and
sat for some time smoking and turn
ing them over.
"You never heard me talk of Victor
Trevor" he asked. He was the only
friend / made during the two years
was at college. | was never a very
sociable fellow, Watson, always rath
er fond of moping in my rooms and
working out my own little methods OF
thought, so that | 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 fellows
so that we had no points of contact al
all. Trevor was the only man | knew
and that only through the accident oil
his bull terrier freezing on to my ankle
one morning as l went down to chapel
1T was a prosaic way of forming a
friendship, but it was effective. / was
Lit -, 81, AA1- =
Trevor used to come in to inquire after
me. At first it was only a minutes
chat. but soon his visits heightened
and before the end of the term we
were close friends. He was a hearty
full-blooded fellow, full of spirits anC
energy, the very opposite to me il
most respects, but we had some sub
jects in common, and it was bond o.
union when | found that he was al
friendless as /. Finally, he invited mt
down to his fathers place at Donni
thorpe, in Norfolk, and l accepted hi
hospitality for a month of the long va
cation.
"Old Trevor was evidently a man o
some wealth and consideration,
p. and a landed proprietor. Donni
thorpe is little hamlet just to thu
north of Langmere, in the country o
Ine bTOdQS. Inc MUSE "dS dH Olu
fashioned. widespread, oak-beame'
brick building, with a fine lime-linet
avenue leading up to it. There wa
excellent wild-duck shooting in tn
fens, remarkably good fishing, a small
but select library, taken over, as l III
derstood, from former occupant, an
a tolerable cook, so that he would b
a fastidious man who could not put i
a pleasant month there.
Trevor senior was a widower, an
my friend his only son.
There had been a daughter,
heard, but she had died of diphtheri
while on a visit to Birmingham. TIL
father interested me extremely. II
was a man of little culture, but wit
considerable amount of rud
strength, both physically and men
ally. He knew hardly any books, bu
he had travelled far, had seen muc
of the world, and had remembered a
that he had learned. In person
was a thick-set. burly man with
shock Of frizzled hair, brown, weatl
er-beaten face, and blue eyes whic
were keen to the verge of fiercenes
Yet he had a reputation for kindne:
and charity on the leniency of h
sentences from the bench.
"One evening, shortly after my a
rival, we were sitting over a glass