R. Holmes and Co
John Kendrick Bangs
(RareBooksClub.com, Sept. 13, 2013)
Excerpt: ...you?" "I would indeed," said I. "Well-you see, I wasn't, so there you are," said Raffles Holmes. "By-the- way, you've come at an interesting moment. There'll be things doing before the evening is over. I've had an anxious caller here five times already to- day. I've been standing in the barber-shop opposite getting a line on him. His card name is Grouch, his real name is-" Here Raffles Holmes leaned forward and whispered in my ear a name of such eminent respectability that I fairly gasped. "You don't mean the Mr. --" "Nobody else," said Raffles Holmes. "Only he don't know I know who he is. The third time Grouch called I trailed him to Blank's house, and then recognized him as Blank himself." "And what does he want with you?" I asked. "That remains to be seen," said Raffles Holmes. "All I know is that next Tuesday he will be required to turn over $100,000 unregistered bonds to a young man about to come of age, for whom he has been a trustee." "Aha!" said I. "And you think-" "I don't think, Jenkins, until the time comes. Gray matter is scarce these times, and I'm not wasting any of mine on unnecessary speculation," said Raffles Holmes. At this point the telephone-bell rang and Raffles answered the summons. "Yes, I'll see Mr. Grouch. Show him up," he said. "It would be mighty interesting reading if some newspaper showed him up," he added, with a grin, as he returned. "By-the-way, Jenkins, I think you'd better go in there and have a half-hour's chat with the talking-machine. I have an idea old man Grouch won't have much to say with a third party present. Listen all you want to, but don't breathe too loud or you'll frighten him away." I immediately retired, and a moment later Mr. Grouch entered Raffles Holmes's den. "Glad to see you," said Raffles Holmes, cordially. "I was wondering how soon you'd be here." "You expected me, then?" asked the visitor, in surprise. "Yes," said Holmes. "Next Tuesday is young Wilbraham's twenty-first birthday,...