证券经纪人的书记员17（在线收听）

“Now you see the point about the handwriting. Suppose that someone 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 anyone 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 would probably never have been aroused.”

Hall Pycroft shook his clenched hands in the air. “Good Lord!” he cried, “while I have been fooled in this way, what has this other Hall Pycroft been doing at Mawson’s? What should we do, Mr. Holmes? Tell me what to do.”

“We must wire to Mawson’s.”

“They shut at twelve on Saturdays.”

“Never mind. There may be some door-keeper or attendant —”

“Ah, yes, they keep a permanent guard there on account of the value of the securities that they hold. I remember hearing it talked of in the City.”

“Very good, we shall wire to him and see if all is well, and if a clerk of your name is working there. That is clear enough, but what is not so clear is why at sight of us one of the rogues should instantly walk out of the room and hang himself.”

“现在看看他为什么要弄到你的笔迹吧。假设有人冒名顶替你去上班，可是字迹和你递一交一的申请书上的并不相同，当然这出把戏就要露出马脚。可是如果在这几天内那个无赖学会模仿你的笔迹，那他就万无一失了，因为我相信这家公司没有人见过你。”

“一个人也没有见过我，”霍尔-派克罗夫特唉声叹气地说道。

“太好了。当然，这件事最重要的一点就是设法不让你改变主意，并且不让你和任何知情一人接触，以免有人告诉你那个冒名顶替饽人已经在莫森商行上班了。所以他们预支给他一笔高薪，把你支到中部地区，在那里他们给你许多工作干，使你无暇返回伦敦，不然你就会把他们的小把戏拆穿了。这一切是非常清楚的。”

“可是为什么这个人要假装他自己的哥哥呢？”

“啊，这也是非常明显的。显然他们只有两个人。另一个人既已冒用你的名字进了莫森商行，他们又不愿有第三者参与一陰一谋，又要有人当你的东家，所以他就尽量乔装打扮冒充两兄弟，相信你即使发现他们模样相似，也会认作是哥儿俩长得一样。要不是你幸而无意中发现了他的金牙，那你就不会起疑心了。”

霍尔-派克罗夫特双手握拳在空中挥舞。”天啊！”他叫喊道，”在我受人愚弄的时候，那个假霍尔-派克罗夫特在莫森商行里做了些什么呢？我们该怎么办？福尔摩斯先生。请指教我怎么办？”

“我们必须给莫森商行发一份电报。”

“他们每星期六十二点关门。”

“不要紧。会有一些看门人或警卫……”

“啊，对了，因为他们保存着很多贵重的证券，他们有一支常备警卫队。我记得在城里听人讲过这件事。”

“太好了，我们给他发一个电报，看看是否一切正常，是否有一个冒用你名字的书记员在那里办公。这是很清楚的，可是，我还不太明白的是，为什么一看到我们，其中的一个赖却立即跑出去自缢了？”