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Page 26
"Give him a check drawn to his own order. He'll have to endorse it when he
deposits it, and that will make him responsible," laughed Holmes.
"What a simple thing when you understand it!" commented Raleigh.
"Very," said Holmes. "Business is getting by slow degrees to be an exact
science. It reminds me of the Brighton mystery, in which I played a modest
part some ten years ago, when I first took up ferreting as a profession. I
was sitting one night in my room at one of the Brighton hotels, which
shall be nameless. I never give the name of any of the hotels at which I
stop, because it might give offence to the proprietors of other hotels,
with the result that my books would be excluded from sale therein. Suffice
it to say that I was spending an early summer Sunday at Brighton with my
friend Watson. We had dined well, and were enjoying our evening smoke
together upon a small balcony overlooking the water, when there came a
timid knock on the door of my room.
"'Watson,' said I, 'here comes some one for advice. Do you wish to wager a
small bottle upon it?'
"'Yes,' he answered, with a smile. 'I am thirsty and I'd like a small
bottle; and while I do not expect to win, I'll take the bet. I should like
to know, though, how you know.'
"'It is quite simple,' said I. 'The timidity of the knock shows that my
visitor is one of two classes of persons--an autograph-hunter or a client,
one of the two. You see I give you a chance to win. It may be an
autograph-hunter, but I think it is a client. If it were a creditor, he
would knock boldly, even ostentatiously; if it were the maid, she would
not knock at all; if it were the hall-boy, he would not come until I had
rung five times for him. None of these things has occurred; the knock is
the half-hearted knock which betokens either that the person who knocked
is in trouble, or is uncertain as to his reception. I am willing, however,
considering the heat and my desire to quench my thirst, to wager that it
is a client.'
"'Done,' said Watson; and I immediately remarked, 'Come in.'
"The door opened, and a man of about thirty-five years of age, in a
bathing-suit, entered the room, and I saw at a glance what had happened.
"'Your name is Burgess,' I said. 'You came here from London this morning,
expecting to return to-night. You brought no luggage with you. After
luncheon you went in bathing. You had machine No. 35, and when you came
out of the water you found that No. 35 had disappeared, with your clothes
and the silver watch your uncle gave you on the day you succeeded to his
business.'
"Of course, gentlemen," observed the detective, with a smile at Sir Walter
and Hamlet--"of course the man fairly gasped, and I continued: 'You have
been lying face downward in the sand ever since, waiting for nightfall, so
that you could come to me for assistance, not considering it good form to
make an afternoon call upon a stranger at his hotel, clad in a
bathing-suit. Am I correct?'
"'Sir,' he replied, with a look of wonder, 'you have narrated my story
exactly as it happened, and I find I have made no mistake in coming to
you. Would you mind telling me what is your course of reasoning?'
"'It is plain as day,' said I. 'I am the person with the red beard with
whom you came down third class from London this morning, and you told me
your name was Burgess and that you were a butcher. When you looked to see
the time, I remarked upon the oddness of your watch, which led to your
telling me that it was the gift of your uncle.'
"'True,' said Burgess, 'but I did not tell you I had no luggage.'
"'No,' said I, 'but that you hadn't is plain; for if you had brought any
other clothing besides that you had on with you, you would have put it on
to come here. That you have been robbed I deduce also from your costume.'
"'But the number of the machine?' asked Watson.
"'Is on the tag on the key hanging about his neck,' said I.
"'One more question,' queried Burgess. 'How do you know I have been lying
face downward on the beach ever since?'
"'By the sand in your eyebrows,' I replied; and Watson ordered up the
small bottle."
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