“You never heard me talk of Victor Trevor?” he asked. “He wasthe only friend I made during the two years I was at college. I wasnever a very sociable fellow, Watson, always rather fond of mopingin my rooms and working out my own little methods of thought,so that I never mixed much with the men of my year. Bar fencingand boxing I had few athletic tastes, and then my line of studywas quite distinct from that of the other fellows, so that we hadno points of contact at all. Trevor was the only man I knew, andthat only through the accident of his bull terrier freezing on to myankle one morning as I went down to chapel.
“It was a prosaic way of forming a friendship, but it waseffective. I was laid by the heels for ten days, but Trevor used tocome in to inquire after me. At first it was only a minute’s chat,but soon his visits lengthened, and before the end of the termwe were close friends. He was a hearty, full-blooded fellow, fullof spirits and energy, the very opposite to me in most respects,but we had some subjects in common, and it was a bond of unionwhen I found that he was as friendless as I. Finally, he invitedme down to his father’s place at Donnithorpe, in Norfolk, and Iaccepted his hospitality for a month of the long vacation.
“Old Trevor was evidently a man of some wealth andconsideration, a J.P., and a landed proprietor. Donnithorpe is alittle hamlet just to the north of Langmere, in the country of theBroads. The house was an old-fashioned, widespread, oak-beamedbrick building, with a fine lime-lined avenue leading up to it.
There was excellent wild-duck shooting in the fens, remarkablygood fishing, a small but select library, taken over, as I understood,from a former occupant, and a tolerable cook, so that he would bea fastidious man who could not put in a pleasant month there.
“Trevor senior was a widower, and my friend his only son.
“There had been a daughter, I heard, but she had died ofdiphtheria while on a visit to Birmingham. The father interestedme extremely. He was a man of little culture, but with aconsiderable amount of rude strength, both physically andmentally. He knew hardly any books, but he had traveled far, hadseen much of the world. And had remembered all that he hadlearned. In person he was a thick-set, burly man with a shock ofgrizzled hair, a brown, weather-beaten face, and blue eyes whichwere keen to the verge of fierceness. Yet he had a reputation forkindness and charity on the country-side, and was noted for theleniency of his sentences from the bench.
“One evening, shortly after my arrival, we were sitting over aglass of port after dinner, when young Trevor began to talk aboutthose habits of observation and inference which I had alreadyformed into a system, although I had not yet appreciated the partwhich they were to play in my life. The old man evidently thoughtthat his son was exaggerating in his description of one or twotrivial feats which I had performed.
“ ‘Come, now, Mr. Holmes,’ said he, laughing good-humoredly.
‘I’m an excellent subject, if you can deduce anything from me.’
“ ‘I fear there is not very much,’ I answered. ‘I might suggestthat you have gone about in fear of some personal attack withinthe last twelvemonth.’
“The laugh faded from his lips, and he stared at me in greatsurprise.
“ ‘Well, that’s true enough,’ said he. ‘You know, Victor,’ turningto his son, ‘when we broke up that poaching gang they swore toknife us, and Sir Edward Holly has actually been attacked. I’vealways been on my guard since then, though I have no idea howyou know it.’
“ ‘You have a very handsome stick,’ I answered. ‘By theinscription I observed that you had not had it more than a year.
But you have taken some pains to bore the head of it and pourmelted lead into the hole so as to make it a formidable weapon. Iargued that you would not take such precautions unless you hadsome danger to fear.’
“ ‘Anything else?’ he asked, smiling.
“ ‘You have boxed a good deal in your youth.’
“ ‘Right again. How did you know it? Is my nose knocked a littleout of the straight?’
“ ‘No,’ said I. ‘It is your ears. They have the peculiar flatteningand thickening which marks the boxing man.’
“ ‘Anything else?’
“ ‘You have done a good deal of digging by your callosities.’
“ ‘Made all my money at the gold fields.’
“ ‘You have been in New Zealand.’
“ ‘Right again.’
“ ‘You have visited Japan.’
“ ‘Quite true.’
“ ‘And you have been most intimately associated with some onewhose initials were J. A., and whom you afterwards were eager toentirely forget.’
“Mr. Trevor stood slowly up, fixed his large blue eyes upon mewith a strange wild stare, and then pitched forward, with his faceamong the nutshells which strewed the cloth, in a dead faint.
“You can imagine, Watson, how shocked both his son and Iwere. His attack did not last long, however, for when we undid hiscollar, and sprinkled the water from one of the finger-glasses overhis face, he gave a gasp or two and sat up.
“ ‘Ah, boys,’ said he, forcing a smile, ‘I hope I haven’t frightenedyou. Strong as I look, there is a weak place in my heart, and it doesnot take much to knock me over. I don’t know how you managethis, Mr. Holmes, but it seems to me that all the detectives offact and of fancy would be children in your hands. That’s yourline of life, sir, and you may take the word of a man who has seensomething of the world.’
“And that recommendation, with the exaggerated estimateof my ability with which he prefaced it, was, if you will believeme, Watson, the very first thing which ever made me feel that aprofession might be made out of what had up to that time been themerest hobby. At the moment, however, I was too much concernedat the sudden illness of my host to think of anything else.
“ ‘I hope that I have said nothing to pain you?’ said I.
“ ‘Well, you certainly touched upon rather a tender point. MightI ask how you know, and how much you know?’ He spoke now in ahalf-jesting fashion, but a look of terror still lurked at the back ofhis eyes.
