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"I think that it is fairly obvious. What do you say,
Watson?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I must confess that I am
out of my depths," said I.

"Oh surely if you consider the events at first they
can only point to one conclusion."

"What do you make of them?"

"Well, the whole thing hinges upon two points. The
first is the making of Pycroft write a declaration by
which he entered the service of this preposterous
company. Do you not see how very suggestive that is?"

"I am afraid I miss the point."

"Well, why did they want him to do it? Not as a
business matter, for these arrangements are usually
verbal, and there was no earthly business reason why
this should be an exception. Don't you see, my young
friend, that they were very anxious to obtain a
specimen of your handwriting, and had no other way of
doing it?"

"And why?"

"Quite so. Why? When we answer that we have made
some progress with our little problem. Why? There
can be only one adequate reason. Some one wanted to
learn to imitate your writing, and had to procure a
specimen of it first. And now if we pass on to the
second point we find that each throws light upon the
other. That point is the request made by Pinner that
you should not resign your place, but should leave the
manager of this important business in the full
expectation that a Mr. Hall Pycroft, whom he had never
seen, was about to enter the office upon the Monday
morning."

"My God!" cried our client, "what a blind beetle I
have been!"

"Now you see the point about the handwriting. Suppose
that some one turned up in your place who wrote a
completely different hand from that in which you had
applied for the vacancy, of course the game would have
been up. But in the interval the rogue had learned to
imitate you, and his position was therefore secure, as
I presume that nobody in the office had ever set eyes
upon you."

"Not a soul," groaned Hall Pycroft.

"Very good. Of course it was of the utmost importance
to prevent you from thinking better of it, and also to
keep you from coming into contact with any one who
might tell you that your double was at work in
Mawson's office. Therefore they gave you a handsome
advance on your salary, and ran you off to the
Midlands, where they gave you enough work to do to
prevent your going to London, where you might have
burst their little game up. That is all plain
enough."

"But why should this man pretend to be his own
brother?"

"Well, that is pretty clear also. There are evidently
only two of them in it. The other is impersonating you
at the office. This one acted as your engager, and
then found that he could not find you an employer
without admitting a third person into his plot. That
he was most unwilling to do. He changed his
appearance as far as he could, and trusted that the
likeness, which you could not fail to observe, would
be put down to a family resemblance. But for the
happy chance of the gold stuffing, your suspicions

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