'
'I close at half-past five, sir.'
'Ah, in that case,' I said, consulting my watch, 'I shall be pleased
to call some other time.'
'Thank you, sir,' replied Summertrees quietly, and with that I took my
leave.
From the corner of an alley on the other side of the street I saw him
put up the shutters with his own hands, then he emerged with overcoat
on, and the money satchel slung across his shoulder. He locked the
door, tested it with his knuckles, and walked down the street,
carrying under one arm the pamphlets he had been addressing. I
followed him some distance, saw him drop the pamphlets into the box at
the first post office he passed, and walk rapidly towards his house in
Park Lane.
When I returned to my flat and called in my assistant, he said,--
'After putting to one side the regular advertisements of pills, soap,
and what not, here is the only one common to all the newspapers,
morning and evening alike. The advertisements are not identical, sir,
but they have two points of similarity, or perhaps I should say three.
They all profess to furnish a cure for absent-mindedness; they all ask
that the applicant's chief hobby shall be stated, and they all bear
the same address: Dr.
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