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Page 36
"'What are my duties?' I asked.
"'You will eventually manage the great depot in Paris,
which will pour a flood of English crockery into the
shops of a hundred and thirty-four agents in France.
The purchase will be completed in a week, and
meanwhile you will remain in Birmingham and make
yourself useful.'
"'How?'
"For answer, he took a big red book out of a drawer.
"'This is a directory of Paris,' said he, 'with the
trades after the names of the people. I want you to
take it home with you, and to mark off all the hardware
sellers, with their addresses. It would be of the
greatest use to me to have them.'
"'Surely there are classified lists?' I suggested.
"'Not reliable ones. Their system is different from
ours. Stick at it, and let me have the lists by
Monday, at twelve. Good-day, Mr. Pycroft. If you
continue to show zeal and intelligence you will find
the company a good master.'
"I went back to the hotel with the big book under my
arm, and with very conflicting feelings in my breast.
On the one hand, I was definitely engaged and had a
hundred pounds in my pocket; on the other, the look of
the offices, the absence of name on the wall, and
other of the points which would strike a business man
had left a bad impression as to the position of my
employers. However, come what might, I had my money,
so I settled down to my task. All Sunday I was kept
hard at work, and yet by Monday I had only got as far
as H. I went round to my employer, found him in the
same dismantled kind of room, and was told to keep at
it until Wednesday, and then come again. On Wednesday
it was still unfinished, so I hammered away until
Friday--that is, yesterday. Then I brought it round
to Mr. Harry Pinner.
"'Thank you very much,' said he; 'I fear that I
underrated the difficulty of the task. This list will
be of very material assistance to me.'
"'It took some time,' said I.
"'And now,' said he, 'I want you to make a list of the
furniture shops, for they all sell crockery.'
"'Very good.'
"'And you can come up to-morrow evening, at seven, and
let me know how you are getting on. Don't overwork
yourself. A couple of hours at Day's Music Hall in
the evening would do you no harm after your labors.'
He laughed as he spoke, and I saw with a thrill that
his second tooth upon the left-hand side had been very
badly stuffed with gold."
Sherlock Holmes rubbed his hands with delight, and I
stared with astonishment at our client.
"You may well look surprised, Dr. Watson; but it is
this way," said he: "When I was speaking to the other
chap in London, at the time that he laughed at my not
going to Mawson's, I happened to notice that his tooth
was stuffed in this very identical fashion. The glint
of the gold in each case caught my eye, you see. When
I put that with the voice and figure being the same,
and only those things altered which might be changed
by a razor or a wig, I could not doubt that it was the
same man. Of course you expect two brothers to be
alike, but not that they should have the same tooth
stuffed in the same way. He bowed me out, and I found
myself in the street, hardly knowing whether I was on
my head or my heels. Back I went to my hotel, put my
head in a basin of cold water, and tried to think it
out. Why had he sent me from London to Birmingham?
Why had he got there before me? And why had he
written a letter from himself to himself? It was
altogether too much for me, and I could make no sense
of it. And then suddenly it struck me that what was
dark to me might be very light to Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
I had just time to get up to town by the night train
to see him this morning, and to bring you both back
with me to Birmingham."
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