th such singular
powers in England, how was it that neither police nor public had heard
of him? I put the question, with a hint that it was my companion's
modesty which made him acknowledge his brother as his superior. Holmes
laughed at my suggestion.

"My dear Watson," said he, "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty
among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as
they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from
truth as to exaggerate one's own powers. When I say, therefore, that
Mycroft has better powers of observation than I, you may take it that I
am speaking the exact and literal truth."

"Is he your junior?"

"Seven years my senior."

"How comes it that he is unknown?"

"Oh, he is very well known in his own circle."

"Where, then?"

"Well, in the Diogenes Club, for example."

I had never heard of the institution, and my face must have proclaimed
as much, for Sherlock Holmes pulled out his watch.

"The Diogenes Club is the queerest club in London, and Mycroft one of
the queerest men. He's always there from quarter to five to twenty to
eight. It's six now, so if you care for a stroll this beautiful evening
I shall be very happy to introduce you to two curiosities."

Five minutes later we were in the street, walking towards Regent's
Circus.

"You wonder," said my companion, "why it is that Mycroft does not use
his powers for detective work. He is incapable of it."

"But I thought you said--"

"I said that he was my superior in observation and deduction. If the
art of the detective began and ended in reasoning from an arm-chair, my
brother would be the greatest criminal agent that ever lived. But he has
no ambition and no energy. He will not even go out of his way to verify
his own solutions, and would rather be considered wrong than take the
trouble to prove himself right. Again and again I have taken a problem
to him, and have received an explanation which has afterwards proved to
be the correct one. And yet he was absolutely incapable of working out
the practical points which must be gone into before a case could be laid
before a judge or jury."

"It is not his profession, then?"

"By no means. What is to me a means of livelihood is to him the merest
hobby of a dilettante. He has an extraordinary faculty for figures, and
audits the books in some of the government departments. Mycroft lodges
in Pall Mall, and he walks round the corner into Whitehal