“Well, that puts it different,” said he. “When I went to see himthis morning and he told me he had sent to a detective, I justasked for your address and came right away. I don’t want policebutting into a private matter. But if you are content just to help usfind the man, there can be no harm in that.”
“Well, that is just how it stands,” said Holmes. “And now, sir,since you are here, we had best have a clear account from yourown lips. My friend here knows nothing of the details.”
Mr. Garrideb surveyed me with not too friendly a gaze.
“Need he know?” he asked.
“We usually work together.”
“Well, there’s no reason it should be kept a secret. I’ll give youthe facts as short as I can make them. If you came from KansasI would not need to explain to you who Alexander HamiltonGarrideb was. He made his money in real estate, and afterwardsin the wheat pit at Chicago, but he spent it in buying up as muchland as would make one of your counties, lying along the ArkansasRiver, west of Fort Dodge. It’s grazing-land and lumber-land andarable-land and mineralized-land, and just every sort of land thatbrings dollars to the man that owns it.
“He had no kith nor kin—or, if he had, I never heard of it. Buthe took a kind of pride in the queerness of his name. That waswhat brought us together. I was in the law at Topeka, and one dayI had a visit from the old man, and he was tickled to death to meetanother man with his own name. It was his pet fad, and he wasdead set to find out if there were any more Garridebs in the world.
‘Find me another!’ said he. I told him I was a busy man and couldnot spend my life hiking round the world in search of Garridebs.
‘None the less,’ said he, ‘that is just what you will do if things panout as I planned them.’ I thought he was joking, but there was apowerful lot of meaning in the words, as I was soon to discover.
“For he died within a year of saying them, and he left a willbehind him. It was the queerest will that has ever been filed inthe State of Kansas. His property was divided into three parts andI was to have one on condition that I found two Garridebs whowould share the remainder. It’s five million dollars for each if it is acent, but we can’t lay a finger on it until we all three stand in a row.
“It was so big a chance that I just let my legal practice slide andI set forth looking for Garridebs. There is not one in the UnitedStates. I went through it, sir, with a fine-toothed comb and never aGarrideb could I catch. Then I tried the old country. Sure enoughthere was the name in the London telephone directory. I wentafter him two days ago and explained the whole matter to him.
But he is a lone man, like myself, with some women relations, butno men. It says three adult men in the will. So you see we still havea vacancy, and if you can help to fill it we will be very ready to payyour charges.”
“Well, Watson,” said Holmes with a smile, “I said it was ratherwhimsical, did I not? I should have thought, sir, that your obviousway was to advertise in the agony columns of the papers.”
“I have done that, Mr. Holmes. No replies.”
“Dear me! Well, it is certainly a most curious little problem.
I may take a glance at it in my leisure. By the way, it is curiousthat you should have come from Topeka. I used to have acorrespondent—he is dead now—old Dr. Lysander Starr, who wasmayor in 1890.”
“Good old Dr. Starr!” said our visitor. “His name is stillhonoured. Well, Mr. Holmes, I suppose all we can do is to reportto you and let you know how we progress. I reckon you will hearwithin a day or two.” With this assurance our American bowedand departed.
Holmes had lit his pipe, and he sat for some time with a curioussmile upon his face.
“Well?” I asked at last.
“I am wondering, Watson—just wondering!”
“At what?”
Holmes took his pipe from his lips.
“I was wondering, Watson, what on earth could be the objectof this man in telling us such a rigmarole of lies. I nearly askedhim so—for there are times when a brutal frontal attack is thebest policy—but I judged it better to let him think he had fooledus. Here is a man with an English coat frayed at the elbow andtrousers bagged at the knee with a year’s wear, and yet by thisdocument and by his own account he is a provincial Americanlately landed in London. There have been no advertisements inthe agony columns. You know that I miss nothing there. Theyare my favourite covert for putting up a bird, and I would neverhave overlooked such a cock pheasant as that. I never knew a Dr. Lysander Starr, of Topeka. Touch him where you would he wasfalse. I think the fellow is really an American, but he has worn hisaccent smooth with years of London. What is his game, then, andwhat motive lies behind this preposterous search for Garridebs?
It’s worth our attention, for, granting that the man is a rascal, heis certainly a complex and ingenious one. We must now find out ifour other correspondent is a fraud also. Just ring him up, Watson.”
I did so, and heard a thin, quavering voice at the other end ofthe line.
“Yes, yes, I am Mr. Nathan Garrideb. Is Mr. Holmes there? Ishould very much like to have a word with Mr. Holmes.”
My friend took the instrument and I heard the usual syncopateddialogue.
“Yes, he has been here. I understand that you don’t know him....How long? ... Only two days! ... Yes, yes, of course, it is a mostcaptivating prospect. Will you be at home this evening? I supposeyour namesake will not be there? ... Very good, we will come then,for I would rather have a chat without him.... Dr. Watson willcome with me.... I understand from your note that you did notgo out often.... Well, we shall be round about six. You need notmention it to the American lawyer.... Very good. Good-bye!”
It was twilight of a lovely spring evening, and even Little RyderStreet, one of the smaller offshoots from the Edgware Road,within a stone-cast of old Tyburn Tree of evil memory, lookedgolden and wonderful in the slanting rays of the setting sun.