safely be left for the last.
When I had done with Mr. Burton I could look in on my friend with a very
good chance of catching him on his return from the hospital. I could
allow myself time for quite a long chat with him, and, by taking a
hansom, still get back in good time for the evening's work.

This was a great comfort. At the prospect of sharing my responsibilities
with a friend on whose judgment I could so entirely rely, my
embarrassments seemed to drop from me in a moment. Having entered the
engagement in my visiting-list, I rose, in greatly improved spirits, and
knocked out my pipe just as the little clock banged out impatiently the
hour of midnight.

Chapter II

Thorndyke Devises a Scheme

As I entered the Temple by the Tudor Street gate the aspect of the place
smote my senses with an air of agreeable familiarity. Here had I spent
many a delightful hour when working with Thorndyke at the remarkable
Hornby case, which the newspapers had called "The Case of the Red Thumb
Mark"; and here had I met the romance of my life, the story whereof is
told elsewhere. The place was thus endeared to me by pleasant
recollections of a happy past, and its associations suggested hopes of
happiness yet to come and in the not too far distant future.

My brisk tattoo on the little brass knocker brought to the door no less
a person than Thorndyke himself; and the warmth of his greeting made me
at once proud and ashamed. For I had not only been an absentee; I had
been a very poor correspondent.

"The prodigal has returned, Polton," he exclaimed, looking into the
room. "Here is Dr. Jervis."

I followed him into the room and found Polton--his confidential servant,
laboratory assistant, artificer and general "familiar"--setting out the
tea-tray on a small table. The little man shook hands cordially with me,
and his face crinkled up into the sort of smile that one might expect to
see on a benevolent walnut.

"We've often talked about you, sir," said he. "The doctor was wondering
only yesterday when you were coming back to us."

As I was not "coming back to them" quite in the sense intended I felt a
little guilty, but reserved my confidences for Thorndyke's ear and
replied in polite generalities. Then Polton fetched the tea-pot from the
laboratory, made up the fire and departed, and Thorndyke and I subsided,
as of old, into our respective arm-chairs.

"And whence do you spring from in this unexpected fashion?" my colleag