sighed his sister. "So now, Dr. Hamilton, may I rely upon your aid?" "Most undoubtedly," said I. "You have only to tell me what my duties
are." "Your first duty will be to return to your home. You will pack up
whatever you may need for a short visit to the country. We start
together from Paddington Station at 3:40 this afternoon." "Do we go far?" "As far as Pangbourne. Meet me at the bookstall at 3:30. I shall have
the tickets. Goodbye, Dr. Hamilton! And, by the way, there are two
things which I should be very glad if you would bring with you, in case
you have them. One is your case for collecting beetles, and the other
is a stick, and the thicker and heavier the better." You may imagine that I had plenty to think of from the time that I left
Brook Street until I set out to meet Lord Linchmere at Paddington. The
whole fantastic business kept arranging and rearranging itself in
kaleidoscopic forms inside my brain, until I had thought out a dozen
explanations, each of them more grotesquely improbable than the last. And yet I felt that the truth must be something grotesquely improbable
also. At last I gave up all attempts at finding a solution, and
contented myself with exactly carrying out the instructions which I had
received. With a hand valise, specimen-case, and a loaded cane, I was
waiting at the Paddington bookstall when Lord Linchmere arrived. He
was an even smaller man than I had thought--frail and peaky, with a
manner which was more nervous than it had been in the morning. He wore
a long, thick travelling ulster, and I observed that he carried a heavy
blackthorn cudgel in his hand. "I have the tickets," said he, leading the way up the platform. "This is our train. I have engaged a carriage, for I am particularly
anxious to impress one or two things upon you while we travel down." And yet all that he had to impress upon me might have been said in a
sentence, for it was that I was to remember that I was there as a
protection to himself, and that I was not on any consideration to leave
him for an instant. This he repeated again and again as our journey
drew to a close, with an insistence which showed that his nerves were
thoroughly shaken. "Yes," he said at last, in answer to my looks rather than to my words,
"I AM nervous, Dr. Hamilton. I have always been a timid man, and my
timidity depends upon my frail physical health. But my soul is firm,
and I can bring myself up to face a danger which a less-nervous man
might shrink from. What I am doing now is done from no compulsion, but
entirely from a sense of duty, and yet it is, beyond doubt, a desperate
risk. If things should go wrong, I will have some claims to the title
of martyr." This eternal reading of riddles was too much for me. I felt that I
must put a term to it. "I think it would very much better, sir, if you were to trust me
entirely," said I. "It is impossible for me to act effectively, when I
do not know what are the objects which we have in view, or even where
we are going." "Oh, as to where we are going, there need be no mystery about that,"
said he; "we are going to Delamere Court, the residence of Sir Thomas
Rossiter, with whose work you are so conversant. As to the exact
object of our visit, I do not know that at this stage of the
proceedings anything would be gained, Dr. Hamilton, by taking you into
my complete confidence. I may tell you that we are acting--I say 'we,'
because my sister, Lady Rossiter, takes the same view as myself--with
the one object of preventing anything in the nature of a family
scandal. That being so, you can understand that I am loath to give any
explanations which are not absolutely necessary. It would be a
different matter, Dr. Hamilton, if I were asking your advice. As
matters stand, it is only your active help which I need, and I will
indicate to you from time to time how you can best give it." There was nothing more to be said, and a poor man can put up with a
good deal for twenty pounds a day, but I felt none the less that Lord
Linchmere was acting rather scurvily towards me. He wished to convert
me into a passive tool, like the blackthorn in his hand. With his
sensitive disposition I could imagine, however, that scandal would be
abhorrent to him, and I realized that he would not take me into his
confidence until no other course was open to him. I must trust to my
own eyes and ears to solve the mystery, but I had every confidence that
I should not trust to them in vain. Delamere Court lies a good five miles from Pangbourne Station, and we
drove for that distance in an open fly. Lord Linchmere sat in deep
thought during the time, and he never opened his mouth until we were
close to our destination. When he did speak it was to give me a piece
of information which surprised me. "Perhaps you are not aware," said he, "that I am a medical man like
yourself?" "No, sir, I did not know it." "Yes, I qualified in my younger days, when there were several lives
between me and the peerage. I have not had occasion to practise, but I
have found it a useful education, all the same. I never regretted the
years which I devoted to medical study. These are the gates of
Delamere Court." We had come to two high pillars crowned with heraldic monsters which
flanked the opening of a winding avenue. Over the laurel bushes and
rhododendrons, I could see a long, many-gabled mansion, girdled with
ivy, and toned to the warm, cheery, mellow glow of old brick-work. My
eyes were still fixed in admiration upon this delightful house when my
companion plucked nervously at my sleeve. "Here's Sir Thomas," he whispered. "Please talk beetle all you can." A tall, thin figure, curiously angular and bony, had emerged through a
gap in the hedge of laurels. In his hand he held a spud, and he wore
gauntleted gardener's gloves. A broad-brimmed, grey hat cast his face
into shadow, but it struck me as exceedingly austere, with an
ill-nourished beard and harsh, irregular features. The fly pulled up
and Lord Linchmere sprang out. "My dear Thomas, how are you?" said he, heartily. But the heartiness was by no means reciprocal. The owner of the
grounds glared at me over his brother-in-law's shoulder, and I caught
broken scraps of sentences--"well-known wishes ... hatred of
strangers ... unjustifiable intrusion ... perfectly inexcusable." Then there was a muttered explanation, and the two of them came over
together to the side of the fly. "Let me present you to Sir Thomas Rossiter, Dr. Hamilton," said Lord
Linchmere. "You will find that you have a strong community of tastes." I bowed. Sir Thomas stood very stiffly, looking at me severely from
under the broad brim of his hat. "Lord Linchmere tells me that you know something about beetles," said
he. "What do you know about beetles?" "I know what I have learned from your work upon the coleoptera, Sir
Thomas," I answered. "Give me the names of the better-known species of the British
scarabaei," said he. I had not expected an examination, but fortunately I was ready for one.