"'You have visited Japan.'
"'Quite true.'
"'And you have been most intimately associated with
some one whose initials were J. A., and whom you
afterwards were eager to entirely forget.'
"Mr. Trevor stood slowly up, fixed his large blue eyes
upon me with a strange wild stare, and then pitched
forward, with his face among the nutshells which
strewed the cloth, in a dead faint.
"You can imagine, Watson, how shocked both his son and
I were. His attack did not last long, however, for
when we undid his collar, and sprinkled the water from
one of the finger-glasses over his face, he gave a
gasp or two and sat up.
"'Ah, boys,' said he, forcing a smile, 'I hope I
haven't frightened you. Strong as I look, there is a
weak place in my heart, and it does not take much to
knock me over. I don't know how you manage this, Mr.
Holmes, but it seems to me that all the detectives of
fact and of fancy would be children in your hands.
That's you line of life, sir, and you may take the
word of a man who has seen something of the world.'
"And that recommendation, with the exaggerated
estimate of my ability with which he prefaced it, was,
if you will believe me, Watson, the very first thing
which ever made me feel that a profession might be
made out of what had up to that time been the merest
hobby. At the moment, however, I was too much
concerned at the sudden illness of my host to think of
anything else.
"'I hope that I have said nothing to pain you?' said
I.
"'Well, you certainly touched upon rather a tender
point. Might I ask how you know, and how much you
know?' He spoke now in a half-jesting fashion, but a
look of terror still lurked at the back of his eyes.
"'It is simplicity itself,' said I. 'When you bared
your arm to draw that fish into the boat I saw that J.
A. Had been tattooed in the bend of the elbow. The
letters were still legible, but it was perfectly clear
from their blurred appearance, and from the staining
of the skin round them, that efforts had been made to
obliterate them. It was obvious, then, that those
initials had once been very familiar to you, and that
you had afterwards wished to forget them.'
"What an eye you have!" he cried, with a sigh of
relief. 'It is just as you say. But we won't talk of
it. Of all ghosts the ghosts of our old lovers are
the worst. Come into the billiard-room and have a
quiet cigar.'
"From that day, amid all his cordiality, there was
always a touch of suspicion in Mr. Trevor's manner
towards me. Even his son remarked it. 'You've given
the governor such a turn,' said he, 'that he'll never
be sure again of what you know and what you don't
know.' He did not mean to show it, I am sure, but it
was so strongly in his mind that it peeped out at
every action. At last I became so convinced that I
was causing him uneasiness that I drew my visit to a
close. On the very day, however, before I left, and
incident occurred which proved in the sequel to be of
importance.
"We were sitting out upon the lawn on garden chairs,
the three of us, basking in the sun and admiring the
view across the Broads, when a maid came out to say
that there was a man at the door who wanted to see Mr.
Trevor.
"'What is his name?' asked my host.
"'He would not give any.'
"'What does he want, then?'
"'He says that you know him, and that he only wants a
moment's conversation.'
"'Show him round here.' An instant afterwards there
appeared a little wizened fellow with a cringing
manner and a shambling style of walking. He wore an
open jacket, with a splotch of tar on the sleeve, a
red-and-black check shirt, dungaree trousers, and
heavy boots badly worn. His face was thin and brown
and crafty, with a perpetual smile upon it, which
showed an irregular line of yellow teeth, and his
crinkled hands were half closed in a way that is
distinctive of sailors. As he came slouching across
the lawn I heard Mr. Trevor make a sort of hiccoughing
noise in his throat, and jumping out of his chair, he
ran into the house. He was back in a moment, and I
smelt a strong reek of brandy as he passed me.
"'Well, my man,' said he. 'What can I do for you?'
"The sailor stood looking at him with puckered eyes,
and with the same loose-lipped smile upon his face.
"'You don't know me?' he asked.
"'Why, dear me, it is surely Hudson,' said Mr. Trevor
in a tone of surprise.
"'Hudson it is, sir,' said the seaman. 'Why, it's
thirty year and more since I saw you last. Here you
are in your house, and me still picking my salt meat
out of the harness cask.'
"'Tut, you will find that I have not forgotten old
times,' cried Mr. Trevor, and, walking towards the
sailor, he said something in a low voice. 'Go into
the kitchen,' he continued out loud, 'and you will get
food and drink. I have no doubt that I shall find you
a situation.'
"'Thank you, sir,' said the seaman, touching his
fore-lock. 'I'm just off a two-yearer in an
eight-knot tramp, short-handed at that, and I wants a
rest. I thought I'd get it either with Mr. Beddoes or
with you.'
"'Ah!' cried Trevor. 'You know where Mr. Beddoes is?'
"'Bless you, sir, I know where all my old friends
are,' said the fellow with a sinister smile, and he
slouched off after the maid to the kitchen. Mr.
Trevor mumbled something to us about having been
shipmate with the man when he was going back to the
diggings, and then, leaving us on the lawn, he went
indoors. An hour later, when we entered the house, we
found him stretched dead drunk upon the dining-room
sofa. The whole incident left a most ugly impression
upon my mind, and I was not sorry next day to leave
Donnithorpe behind me, for I felt that my presence
must be a source of embarrassment to my friend.
"All this occurred during the first month of the long
vacation. I went up to my London rooms, where I spent
seven weeks working out a few experiments in organic
chemistry. On day, however, when the autumn was far
advanced and the vacation drawing to a close, I
received a telegram from my friend imploring me to
return to Donnithorpe, and saying that he was in great
need of my advice and assistance. Of course I dropped
everything and set out for the North once more.
"He met me with the dog-cart at the station, and I saw
at a glance that the last two months had been very
trying ones for him. He had grown thin and careworn,
and had lost the loud, cheery manner for which he had
been remarkable.
"'The governor is dying,' were the first words he
br /> said.
"'Impossible!' I cried. 'What is the matter?'
"'Apoplexy. Nervous shock, He's been on the verge
all day. I doubt if we shall find him alive.'
"I was, as you may think, Watson, horrified at this
unexpected news.
"'What has caused it?' I asked.
"'Ah, that is the point. Jump in and we can talk it
over while we drive. You remember that fellow who
came upon the evening before you left us?'
"'Perfectly.'
"'Do you know who it was that we let into the house
that day?'
"'I have no idea.'
"'It was the devil, Holmes,' he cried.
"I stared at him in astonishment.
"'Yes, it was the devil himself. We have not had a
peaceful hour since--not one. The governor has never
held up his head from that evening, and now the life
has been crushed out of him and his heart broken, all
through this accursed Hudson.'
"'What power had he, then?'
"'Ah, that is what I would give so much to know. The
kindly, charitable, good old governor--how could he
have fallen into the clutches of such a ruffian! But
I am so glad that you have come, Holmes. I trust very
much to your judgment and discretion, and I know that
you will advise me for the best.'
"We were dashing along the smooth white country road,
with the long stretch of the Broads in front of us
glimmering in the red light of the setting sun. From
a grove upon our left I could already see the high
chimneys and the flag-staff which marked the squire's
dwelling.
"'My father made the fellow gardener,' said my
companion, 'and then, as that did not satisfy him, he
was promoted to be butler. The house seemed to be at
his mercy, and he wandered about and did what he chose
in it. The maids complained of his drunken habits and
his vile language. The dad raised their wages all
round to recompense them for the annoyance. The
fellow would take the boat and my father's best gun
and treat himself to little shooting trips. And all
this with such a sneering, leering, insolent face that
I would have knocked him down twenty times over if he
had been a man of my own age. I tell you, Holmes, I
have had to keep a tight hold upon myself all this
time; and now I am asking myself whether, if I had let
myself go a little more, I might not have been a wiser
man.
"'Well, matters went from bad to worse with us, and
this animal Hudson became more and more intrusive,
until at last, on making some insolent reply to my
father in my presence one day, I took him by the
shoulders and turned him out of the room. He slunk
away with a livid face and two venomous eyes which
uttered more threats than his tongue could do. I
don't know what passed between the poor dad and him
after that, but the dad came to me next day and asked
me whether I would mind apologizing to Hudson. I
refused, as you can imagine, and asked my father how
he could allow such a wretch to take such liberties
with himself and his household.
"'"Ah, my boy," said he, "it is all very well to talk,
but you don't know how I am placed. But you shall
know, Victor. I'll see that you shall know, come what
may. You wouldn't believe harm of your poor old
father, would you, lad?" He was very much moved, and
shut himself up in the study all day, where I could
see through the window that he was writing busily.
"'That evening there came what seemed to me to be a
grand release, for Hudson told us that he was going to
leave us. He walked into the dining-room as we sat
after dinner, and announced his intention in the thick
voice of a half-drunken man.
"'"I've had enough of Norfolk," said he. "I'll run
down to Mr. Beddoes in Hampshire. He'll be as glad to
see me as you were, I dare say."
"'"You're not going away in any kind of spirit,
Hudson, I hope," said my father, with a tameness which
mad my blood boil.
"'"I've not had my 'pology," said he sulkily, glancing
in my direction.
"'"Victor, you will acknowledge that you have used
this worthy fellow rather roughly," said the dad,
turning to me.
"'"On the contrary, I think that we have both shown
extraordinary patience towards him," I answered.
"'"Oh, you do, do you?" he snarls. "Very good, mate.
We'll see about that!"
"'He slouched out of the room, and half an hour
afterwards left the house, leaving my father in a
state of pitiable nervousness. Night after night I
heard him pacing his room, and it was just as he was
recovering his confidence that the blow did at last
fall.'
"'And how?' I asked eagerly.
"'In a most extraordinary fashion. A letter arrived
for my father yesterday evening, bearing the
Fordingbridge post-mark. My father read it, clapped
both his hands to his head, and began running round
the room in little circles like a man who has been
driven out of his senses. When I at last drew him
down on to the sofa, his mouth and eyelids were all
puckered on one side, and I saw that he had a stroke.
Dr. Fordham came over at once. We put him to bed; but
the paralysis has spread, he has shown no sign of
returning consciousness, and I think that we shall
hardly find him alive.'
"'You horrify me, Trevor!' I cried. 'What then could
have been in this letter to cause so dreadful a
result?'
"'Nothing. There lies the inexplicable part of it.
The message was absurd and trivial. Ah, my God, it is
as I feared!'
"As he spoke we came round the curve of the avenue,
and saw in the fading light that every blind in the
house had been drawn down. As we dashed up to the
door, my friend's face convulsed with grief, a
gentleman in black emerged from it.
"'When did it happen, doctor?' asked Trevor.
"'Almost immediately after you left.'
"'Did he recover consciousness?'
"'For an instant before the end.'
"'Any message for me.'
"'Only that the papers were in the back drawer of the
Japanese cabinet.'
"My friend ascended with the doctor to the chamber of
death, while I remained in the study, turning the
whole matter over and over in my head, and feeling as
sombre as ever I had done in my life. What was the
past of this Trevor, pugilist, traveler, and
gold-digger, and how had he placed himself in the
power of this acid-faced seaman? Why, too, should he
faint at an allusion to the half-effaced initials upon
his arm, and die of fright when he had a letter from
Fordingham? Then I remembered that Fordingham was in
Hampshire, and that this Mr. Beddoes, whom the seaman
had gone to visit and presumably to blackmail, had
also been mentio
ned as living in Hampshire. The
letter, then, might either come from Hudson, the
seaman, saying that he had betrayed the guilty secret
which appeared to exist, or it might come from
Beddoes, warning an old confederate that such a
betrayal was imminent. So far it seemed clear enough.
But then how could this letter be trivial and
grotesque, as describe by the son? He must have
misread it. If so, it must have been one of those
ingenious secret codes which mean one thing while they
seem to mean another. I must see this letter. If
there were a hidden meaning in it, I was confident
that I could pluck it forth. For an hour I sat
pondering over it in the gloom, until at last a
weeping maid brought in a lamp, and close at her heels
came my friend Trevor, pale but composed, with these
very papers which lie upon my knee held in his grasp.
He sat down opposite to me, drew the lamp to the edge
of the table, and handed me a short note scribbled, as
you see, upon a single sheet of 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 you hen-pheasant's life.'
"I dare say my face looked as bewildered as your did
just now when first I read this message. Then I
reread it very carefully. It was evidently as I had
thought, and some secret meaning must lie buried in
this strange combination of words. Or could it be
that there was a prearranged significance to such
phrases as 'fly-paper' and hen-pheasant'? Such a
meaning would be arbitrary and could not be deduced in
any way. And yet I was loath to believe that this was
the case, and the presence of the word Hudson seemed
to show that the subject of the message was as I had
guessed, and that it was from Beddoes rather than the
sailor. I tried it backwards, but the combination
'life pheasant's hen' was not encouraging. Then I
tried alternate words, but neither 'the of for' nor
'supply game London' promised to throw any light upon
it.
"And then in an instant the key of the riddle was in
my hands, and I saw that every third word, beginning
with the first, would give a message which might well
drive old Trevor to despair.
"It was short and terse, the warning, as I now read it
to my companion:
"'The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your
life.'
"Victor Trevor sank his face into his shaking hands,
'It must be that, I suppose,' said he. "This is worse
than death, for it means disgrace as well. But what
is the meaning of these "head-keepers" and
"hen-pheasants"?
"'It means nothing to the message, but it might mean a
good deal to us if we had no other means of
discovering the sender. You see that he has begun by
writing "The...game...is," and so on. Afterwards he
had, to fulfill the prearranged cipher, to fill in any
two words in each space. He would naturally use the
first words which came to his mind, and if there were
so many which referred to sport among them, you may be
tolerably sure that he is either an ardent shot or
interested in breeding. Do you know anything of this
Beddoes?'
"'Why, now that you mention it,' said he, 'I remember
that my poor father used to have an invitation from
him to shoot over his preserves every autumn.'
"'Then it is undoubtedly from him that the note
comes,' said I. 'It only remains for us to find out
what this secret was which the sailor Hudson seems to
have held over the heads of these two wealthy and
respected men.'
"'Alas, Holmes, I fear that it is one of sin and
shame!' cried my friend. 'But from you I shall have
no secrets. Here is the statement which was drawn up
by my father when he knew that the danger from Hudson
had become imminent. I found it in the Japanese
cabinet, as he told the doctor. Take it and read it
to me, for I have neither the strength nor the courage
to do it myself.'
"These are the very papers, Watson, which he handed to
me, and I will read them to you, as I read them in the
old study that night to him. They are endorsed
outside, as you see, 'Some particulars of the voyage