haps, until I could bring help to him. It was not a time
to stand upon ceremony. His life depended upon my promptness. Before
the apologetic butler had delivered his message I had pushed past him
and was in the room.

With a shrill cry of anger a man rose from a reclining chair beside the
fire. I saw a great yellow face, coarse-grained and greasy, with
heavy, double-chin, and two sullen, menacing gray eyes which glared at
me from under tufted and sandy brows. A high bald head had a small
velvet smoking-cap poised coquettishly upon one side of its pink curve.
The skull was of enormous capacity, and yet as I looked down I saw to
my amazement that the figure of the man was small and frail, twisted in
the shoulders and back like one who has suffered from rickets in his
childhood.

"What's this?" he cried in a high, screaming voice. "What is the
meaning of this intrusion? Didn't I send you word that I would see you
to-morrow morning?"

"I am sorry," said I, "but the matter cannot be delayed. Mr. Sherlock
Holmes--"

The mention of my friend's name had an extraordinary effect upon the
little man. The look of anger passed in an instant from his face. His
features became tense and alert.

"Have you come from Holmes?" he asked.

"I have just left him."

"What about Holmes? How is he?"

"He is desperately ill. That is why I have come."

The man motioned me to a chair, and turned to resume his own. As he
did so I caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror over the
mantelpiece. I could have sworn that it was set in a malicious and
abominable smile. Yet I persuaded myself that it must have been some
nervous contraction which I had surprised, for he turned to me an
instant later with genuine concern upon his features.

"I am sorry to hear this," said he. "I only know Mr. Holmes through
some business dealings which we have had, but I have every respect for
his talents and his character. He is an amateur of crime, as I am of
disease. For him the villain, for me the microbe. There are my
prisons," he continued, pointing to a row of bottles and jars which
stood upon a side table. "Among those gelatine cultivations some of the
very worst offenders in the world are now doing time."

"It was on account of your special knowledge that Mr. Holmes desired to
see you. He has a high opinion of you and thought that you were the
one man in London who could help him."

The little man started, and the jaunty smoking-