ddeus Sholto took down one of the side-lamps from the
carriage to give us a better light upon our way.

Pondicherry Lodge stood in its own grounds, and was girt round with a
very high stone wall topped with broken glass. A single narrow
iron-clamped door formed the only means of entrance. On this our guide
knocked with a peculiar postman-like rat-tat.

"Who is there?" cried a gruff voice from within.

"It is I, McMurdo. You surely know my knock by this time."

There was a grumbling sound and a clanking and jarring of keys. The
door swung heavily back, and a short, deep-chested man stood in the
opening, with the yellow light of the lantern shining upon his
protruded face and twinkling distrustful eyes.

"That you, Mr. Thaddeus? But who are the others? I had no orders
about them from the master."

"No, McMurdo? You surprise me! I told my brother last night that I
should bring some friends."

"He ain't been out o' his room to-day, Mr. Thaddeus, and I have no
orders. You know very well that I must stick to regulations. I can let
you in, but your friends must just stop where they are."

This was an unexpected obstacle. Thaddeus Sholto looked about him in a
perplexed and helpless manner. "This is too bad of you, McMurdo!" he
said. "If I guarantee them, that is enough for you. There is the young
lady, too. She cannot wait on the public road at this hour."

"Very sorry, Mr. Thaddeus," said the porter, inexorably. "Folk may be
friends o' yours, and yet no friends o' the master's. He pays me well
to do my duty, and my duty I'll do. I don't know none o' your friends."

"Oh, yes you do, McMurdo," cried Sherlock Holmes, genially. "I don't
think you can have forgotten me. Don't you remember the amateur who
fought three rounds with you at Alison's rooms on the night of your
benefit four years back?"

"Not Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" roared the prize-fighter. "God's truth! how
could I have mistook you? If instead o' standin' there so quiet you
had just stepped up and given me that cross-hit of yours under the jaw,
I'd ha' known you without a question. Ah, you're one that has wasted
your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the
fancy."

"You see, Watson, if all else fails me I have still one of the
scientific professions open to me," said Holmes, laughing. "Our friend
won't keep us out in the cold now, I am sure."

"In you come, sir, in you come,--you and your friends," he answered.