“A-ha!” said I to myself, “I’ve nailed you, my friend.  You’re a desk-clerk, and you write all day long, standing at a desk.  The worn top button rubs against your desk as you stand, which it would not do were you seated.”

With a pardonable curiosity to learn if I were right, I opened conversation with the young man.  He was not unwilling to respond, and after a few questions I learned, to my chagrin, that he was a photographer.  Alas for my deductions!  But surely, Fleming Stone himself would not have guessed a photographer from a worn and shiny coat-sleeve.  At the risk of being rudely personal, I made some reference to fashions in coats.  The young man smiled and remarked incidentally, that owing to certain circumstances he was at the moment wearing his brother’s coat.

“And is your brother a desk clerk?” inquired I almost involuntarily: 

He gave me a surprised glance, but answered courteously enough, “Yes;” and the conversation flagged.

Exultantly I thought that my deduction, though rather an obvious one, was right; but after another furtive glance at the young man, I realized that Stone would have known he was wearing another’s coat, for it was the most glaring misfit in every way.

Once more I tried, and directed my attention to a middle-aged, angular-looking woman, whose strong, sharp-featured face betokened a prim spinster, probably at the head of a girls’ school, or engaged in some clerical work.  However, as I passed her on my way to leave the train I noticed a wedding-ring on her hand, and heard her say to her companion, “No; I think a woman’s sphere is in her own kitchen and nursery.  How could I think otherwise, with my six children to bring up?” After these lamentable failures, I determined not to trust much to deduction in the case I was about to investigate, but to learn actual facts from actual evidence.

I reached West Sedgwick, as Donovan had said, at quarter before eleven.  Though I had never been there before, the place looked quite as I had imagined it.  The railway station was one of those modern attractive structures of rough gray stone, with picturesque projecting roof and broad, clean platforms.  A flight of stone steps led down to the roadway, and the landscape in every direction showed the well-kept roads, the well-grown trees and the carefully-tended estates of a town of suburban homes.  The citizens were doubtless mainly men whose business was in New York, but who preferred not to live there.

The superintendent must have apprised the coroner by telephone of my immediate arrival, for a village cart from the Crawford establishment was awaiting me, and a smart groom approached and asked if I were Mr. Herbert Burroughs.

A little disappointed at having no more desirable companion on my way to the house, I climbed up beside the driver, and the groom solemnly took his place behind.  Not curiosity, but a justifiable desire to learn the main facts of the case as soon as possible, led me to question the man beside me.