About a fortnight before, being in town, I had spent the evening with
the doctor. He was not alone, and I was introduced to a tall pale young
man named Carriston. He was a pleasant, polite young fellow, although
not much in my line. At first I judged him to be a would-be poet of the
fashionable miserable school; but finding that he and Brand talked so
much about art I eventually decided that he was one of the doctor's many
artist friends. Art is a hobby he hacks about on grandly. (Mem. Brand's
own attempt at pictures are simply atrocious!)
Just before I left, Carriston, the doctor's back being turned, asked me
to step into another room. There he showed me the portrait of a man. It
seemed very cleverly drawn, and I presumed he wanted me to criticise it.
"I am a precious bad judge," I said.
"I am not asking you to pass an opinion," said Carriston. "I want
to beg a favor of you. I am almost ashamed to beg it on so short an
acquaintance."
He seemed modest, and not in want of money, so I encouraged him to
proceed.
"I heard you say you were going into the country," he resumed. "I want
to ask you if by any chance you should meet the original of that drawing
to telegraph at once to Dr. Brand."
"Whereabouts does he live?"
"I have no idea. If chance throws him in your way please do as I ask."
"Certainly I will," I said, seeing the young man made the request in
solemn earnest.
He thanked me, and then gave me a small photograph of the picture. This
photograph he begged me to keep in my pocket-book, so that I might
refer to it in case I met the man he wanted. I put it there, went my
way, and, am sorry to say, forget all about it. Had it not been for the
strange cigar in my case bringing back Carriston's unusual request to my
mind, the probabilities are that I should not have thought again of the
matter. Now, by a remarkable coincidence, I was spending the night with
the very man, who, so far as my memory served me, must have sat for the
portrait shown me at Brand's house.
"I wonder what I did with the photo," I said. I turned out my
letter-case. There it was, right enough! Shading it with one hand, I
carefully compared it with the sleeper.
Not a doubt about it! So far as a photograph taken from a picture can
go, it was the man himself. The same ragged beard, the same coarse
features, the same surly look. Young Carriston was evidently a wonderful
hand at knocking off a likeness. Moreover, in case I had felt any doubt
in the matter, a printed note at the bottom of the photograph said that
one joint was missing from a right-hand finger. Sure enough, my friend
lacked that small portion of his misbegotten frame.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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