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is well! That is well!» said he. «May I offer you a glass of Chianti, Miss Morstan? Or of Tokay? I keep no other wines. Shall I open a flask? No? Well, then, I trust that you have no objection to tobacco-smoke, to the mild balsamic odor of the Eastern tobacco.

      04_020

      I am a little nervous, and I find my hookah an invaluable sedative.» He applied a taper to the great bowl, and the smoke bubbled merrily through the rose-water.

      04_021

      We sat all three in a semicircle, with our heads advanced, and our chins upon our hands, while the strange, jerky little fellow, with his high, shining head, puffed uneasily in the centre.

      04_022

      «When I first determined to make this communication to you,» said he, «I might have given you my address, but I feared that you might disregard my request and bring unpleasant people with you.

      04_023

      I took the liberty, therefore, of making an appointment in such a way that my man Williams might be able to see you first. I have complete confidence in his discretion, and he had orders, if he were dissatisfied, to proceed no further in the matter.

      04_024

      You will excuse these precautions, but I am a man of somewhat retiring, and I might even say refined, tastes, and there is nothing more unaesthetic than a policeman. I have a natural shrinking from all forms of rough materialism. I seldom come in contact with the rough crowd.

      04_025

      I live, as you see, with some little atmosphere of elegance around me. I may call myself a patron of the arts. It is my weakness.

      04_026

      The landscape is a genuine Corot, and, though a connoisseur might perhaps throw a doubt upon that Salvator Rosa, there cannot be the least question about the Bouguereau. I am partial to the modern French school.»

      04_027

      «You will excuse me, Mr. Sholto,» said Miss Morstan, «but I am here at your request to learn something which you desire to tell me. It is very late, and I should desire the interview to be as short as possible.»

      04_028

      «At the best it must take some time,» he answered; «for we shall certainly have to go to Norwood and see Brother Bartholomew. We shall all go and try if we can get the better of Brother Bartholomew.

      04_029

      He is very angry with me for taking the course which has seemed right to me. I had quite high words with him last night. You cannot imagine what a terrible fellow he is when he is angry.»

      04_030

      «If we are to go to Norwood it would perhaps be as well to start at once,» I ventured to remark.

      04_031

      He laughed until his ears were quite red. «That would hardly do,» he cried. «I don’t know what he would say if I brought you in that sudden way. No, I must prepare you by showing you how we all stand to each other.

      04_032

      In the first place, I must tell you that there are several points in the story of which I am myself ignorant. I can only lay the facts before you as far as I know them myself.

      04_033

      «My father was, as you may have guessed, Major John Sholto, once of the Indian army. He retired some eleven years ago, and came to live at Pondicherry Lodge in Upper Norwood.

      04_034

      He had prospered in India, and brought back with him a considerable sum of money, a large collection of valuable curiosities, and a staff of native servants. With these advantages he bought himself a house, and lived in great luxury. My twin-brother Bartholomew and I were the only children.

      04_035

      «I very well remember the sensation which was caused by the disappearance of Captain Morstan. We read the details in the papers, and, knowing that he had been a friend of our father’s, we discussed the case freely in his presence. He used to join in our speculations as to what could have happened.

      04_036

      Never for an instant did we suspect that he had the whole secret hidden in his own breast, – that of all men he alone knew the fate of Arthur Morstan.

      04_037

      «We did know, however, that some mystery – some positive danger – overhung our father. He was very fearful of going out alone, and he always employed two prize-fighters to act as porters at Pondicherry Lodge. Williams, who drove you to-night, was one of them. He was once light-weight champion of England.

      04_038

      Our father would never tell us what it was he feared, but he had a most marked aversion to men with wooden legs. On one occasion he actually fired his revolver at a wooden-legged man, who proved to be a harmless tradesman canvassing for orders. We had to pay a large sum to hush the matter up.

      04_039

      My brother and I used to think this a mere whim of my father’s, but events have since led us to change our opinion.

      04_040

      «Early in 1882 my father received a letter from India which was a great shock to him. He nearly fainted at the breakfast-table when he opened it, and from that day he sickened to his death.

      04_041

      What was in the letter we could never discover, but I could see as he held it that it was short and written in a scrawling hand.

      04_042

      He had suffered for years from an enlarged spleen, but he now became rapidly worse, and

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