him into the other room, where he lay with
a clay-colored face, puffing his purple lips in and out with every
breath--a dreadful wreck of all that he had been but five minutes
before.

"What do you think of him, Watson?" asked Holmes.

I stooped over him and examined him. His pulse was feeble and
intermittent, but his breathing grew longer, and there was a little
shivering of his eyelids, which showed a thin white slit of ball
beneath.

"It has been touch and go with him," said I, "but he'll live now. Just
open that window, and hand me the water carafe." I undid his collar,
poured the cold water over his face, and raised and sank his arms until
he drew a long, natural breath. "It's only a question of time now," said
I, as I turned away from him.

Holmes stood by the table, with his hands deep in his trouser's pockets
and his chin upon his breast.

"I suppose we ought to call the police in now," said he. "And yet I
confess that I'd like to give them a complete case when they come."

"It's a blessed mystery to me," cried Pycroft, scratching his head.
"Whatever they wanted to bring me all the way up here for, and then--"

"Pooh! All that is clear enough," said Holmes impatiently. "It is this
last sudden move."

"You understand the rest, then?"

"I think that it is fairly obvious. What do you say, Watson?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I must confess that I am out of my depths,"
said I.

"Oh surely if you consider the events at first they can only point to
one conclusion."

"What do you make of them?"

"Well, the whole thing hinges upon two points. The first is the making
of Pycroft write a declaration by which he entered the service of this
preposterous company. Do you not see how very suggestive that is?"

"I am afraid I miss the point."

"Well, why did they want him to do it? Not as a business matter, for
these arrangements are usually verbal, and there was no earthly business
reason why this should be an exception. Don't you see, my young friend,
that they were very anxious to obtain a specimen of your handwriting,
and had no other way of doing it?"

"And why?"

"Quite so. Why? When we answer that we have made some progress with our
little problem. Why? There can be only one adequate reason. Some one
wanted to learn to imitate your writing, and had to procure a specimen
of it first. And now if we pass on to the second point we find that each
throws light upon the other. That point is the request mad