He gave me a quick sketch of his history. As a boy Selby had been noted for his grace, his well-shaped head, his clean-cut features these characteristics still were his, and although he was now slightly past his first youth he was decidedly handsome. His face was bronzed and good-looking, his features refined. He was a boy of fourteen then, but nevertheless I recognized him. Our hands met in a warm clasp, and a moment later I found myself sitting close to my old friend, who had fagged for me in the bygone days, and whom I had not seen from the moment when I said goodbye to the "Hill" in the grey mist of a December morning twenty years ago. "Don't you know me?" he responded, "Jack Selby, Hayward's House, Harrow, 1879." "You are, sir," I said, glancing keenly back at him, "but you have the advantage of me." "Excuse me," he said, as he tossed it overboard, "but surely I am addressing Mr. Before I could reply he had struck one and held it out to me. The voice came from a slender, young-looking man who stood near the taffrail. Then the engine bells rang to "Full speed ahead", and, flinging a farewell to the fairest island on earth, I turned to the smoking-room in order to light my cheroot. It was a lovely night, and the strains of the band in the public gardens of Funchal came floating across the star-powdered bay through the warm, balmy air. I left the island on the 14th of the month by the Norham Castle for Southampton. It so happened that in June, 1899, my business took me to Madeira on an inquiry of some importance. Since then I have met queer people and seen strange sights, for men do curious things for money in this world. Of this agency I, Dixon Druce, was appointed manager in 1890.
It is the great safeguard to British trade and prevents much fraudulent dealing. I do not say that every firm figures on its books, but by methods of secret inquiry it can discover the status of any firm or individual. Its business is to know the financial condition of all wholesale and retail firms, from Rothschild's to the smallest sweetstuff shop in Whitechapel. VERYONE in trade and a good many who are not have heard of Werner's Agency, the Solvency Inquiry Agency for all British trade. F ROM: The Strand Magazine, Volume XXIV, July-December, 1902.į ROM: The Strand Magazine, Volume XXV, January-June, 1903.ī Y L. įirst appeared in The Strand Magazine, Volume XXIV July-December, 1902 A Celebration of Women Writers The Sorceress of the Strand.
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