R. Holmes Co. | Page 6

at it tooth and nail. Finally
his effort was rewarded. Under 'Applications for Autograph' he found a
daintily-scented little missive from a young girl living at
Goring-Streatley on the Thames, the daughter, she said, of a retired
missionary--the Reverend James Tattersby--asking him if he would not
kindly write his autograph upon the enclosed slip for her collection. It
was the regular stock application that truly distinguished men receive in
every mail. The only thing to distinguish it from other applications was
the beauty of the seal on the fly of the envelope, which attracted his
passing notice and was then filed away with the other letters of similar
import.
"'Ho! ho!' quoth Holmes, as he compared the two impressions and
discovered that they were identical. 'An innocent little maiden who
collects autographs, and a retired missionary in possession of the
Dorrington seal, eh? Well, that is interesting. I think I shall run down to
Goring- Streatley over Sunday and meets Miss Marjorie Tattersby and
her reverend father. I'd like to see to what style of people I have
intrusted my autograph.'
"To decide was to act with Sherlock Holmes, and the following
Saturday, hiring a canoe at Windsor, he made his way up the river until
he came to the pretty little hamlet, snuggling in the Thames Valley, if
such it may be called, where the young lady and her good father were
dwelling. Fortune favored him in that his prey was still there--both
much respected by the whole community; the father a fine looking,
really splendid specimen of a man whose presence alone carried a
conviction of integrity and a lofty man; the daughter--well, to see her
was to love her, and the moment the eyes of Sherlock fell upon her face
that great heart of his, that had ever been adamant to beauty, a very
Gibraltar against the wiles of the other sex, went down in the chaos of a

first and overwhelming passion. So hard hit was he by Miss Tattersby's
beauty that his chief thought now was to avert rather than to direct
suspicion towards her. After all, she might have come into possession
of the jewel honestly, though how the daughter of a retired missionary,
considering its intrinsic value, could manage such a thing, was pretty
hard to understand, and he fled back to London to think it over. Arrived
there, he found an invitation to visit Dorrington Castle again incog.
Lord Dorrington was to have a mixed week-end party over the
following Sunday, and this, he thought, would give Holmes an
opportunity to observe the characteristics of Dorrington's visitors and
possibly gain therefore some clew as to the light-fingered person from
whose depredations his lordship had suffered. The idea commended
itself to Holmes, and in the disguise of a young American clergyman,
whom Dorrington had met in the States, the following Friday found
him at Dorrington Castle.
"Well, to make a long story short," said Raffles Holmes, "the young
clergyman was introduced to many of the leading sportsmen of the
hour, and, for the most part, they passed muster, but one of them did
not, and that was the well-known cricketer A. J. Raffles, for the
moment Raffles entered the room, jovially greeting everybody about
him, and was presented to Lord Dorrington's new guest, Sherlock
Holmes recognized in him no less a person that the Reverend James
Tattersby, retired missionary of Goring-Streatley- on-Thames, and the
father of the woman who had filled his soul with love and yearning of
the truest sort. The problem was solved. Raffles was, to all intents and
purposes, caught with the goods on. Holmes could have exposed him
then and there had he chosen to do so, but every time it came to the
point the lovely face of Marjorie Tattersby came between him and his
purpose. How could he inflict the pain and shame which the exposure
of her father's misconduct would certainly entail upon that fair woman,
whose beauty and fresh innocence had taken so strong a hold upon his
heart? No-- that was out of the question. The thing to do, clearly was to
visit Miss Tattersby during her father's absence, and, if possible,
ascertain from just how she had come into possession of the seal,
before taking further steps in the matter. This he did. Making sure, to
begin with, that Raffles was to remain at Dorrington Hall for the

coming ten days, Holmes had himself telegraphed for and returned to
London. There he wrote himself a letter of introduction to the Reverend
James Tattersby, on the paper of the Anglo- American Missionary
Society, a sheet of which he secured in the public writing-room of that
institution, armed with which he returned to the beautiful little spot on
the Thames where the Tattersbys abode. He spent the