of him. Make any excuse so as not to
come with him. Don't forget, Watson. You won't fail me. You never did
fail me. No doubt there are natural enemies which limit the increase
of the creatures. You and I, Watson, we have done our part. Shall the
world, then, be overrun by oysters? No, no; horrible! You'll convey
all that is in your mind."

I left him full of the image of this magnificent intellect babbling
like a foolish child. He had handed me the key, and with a happy
thought I took it with me lest he should lock himself in. Mrs. Hudson
was waiting, trembling and weeping, in the passage. Behind me as I
passed from the flat I heard Holmes's high, thin voice in some
delirious chant. Below, as I stood whistling for a cab, a man came on
me through the fog.

"How is Mr. Holmes, sir?" he asked.

It was an old acquaintance, Inspector Morton, of Scotland Yard, dressed
in unofficial tweeds.

"He is very ill," I answered.

He looked at me in a most singular fashion. Had it not been too
fiendish, I could have imagined that the gleam of the fanlight showed
exultation in his face.

"I heard some rumour of it," said he.

The cab had driven up, and I left him.

Lower Burke Street proved to be a line of fine houses lying in the
vague borderland between Notting Hill and Kensington. The particular
one at which my cabman pulled up had an air of smug and demure
respectability in its old-fashioned iron railings, its massive
folding-door, and its shining brasswork. All was in keeping with a
solemn butler who appeared framed in the pink radiance of a tinted
electrical light behind him.

"Yes, Mr. Culverton Smith is in. Dr. Watson! Very good, sir, I will
take up your card."

My humble name and title did not appear to impress Mr. Culverton Smith.
Through the half-open door I heard a high, petulant, penetrating voice.

"Who is this person? What does he want? Dear me, Staples, how often
have I said that I am not to be disturbed in my hours of study?"

There came a gentle flow of soothing explanation from the butler.

"Well, I won't see him, Staples. I can't have my work interrupted like
this. I am not at home. Say so. Tell him to come in the morning if
he really must see me."

Again the gentle murmur.

"Well, well, give him that message. He can come in the morning, or he
can stay away. My work must not be hindered."

I thought of Holmes tossing upon his bed of sickness and counting the
minutes, per