Lever, had most strangely disappeared,
due to some carelessness in his office.
"Now we have an extremely promising book and no author--"
"What I can't understand," cut in Holmes, "is the modesty of the author.
Why hasn't he written to Lever?"
"That is the most unfortunate part of the whole affair." Mr. Creighton
shook his head. "Lever recalled that the chap had said in the letter
that if Lever found the manuscript unsalable he should destroy it, as
the writer was moving about and had no permanent address. The fellow
added that if he didn't hear from Lever he would assume that it was not
acceptable. Lever wrote to the address given in the letter to
acknowledge receipt, but that was all."
"Mysterious," Val commented, interested in spite of himself.
"Just so. Lever deduced from the tone of the letter that the writer was
very uncertain of his own powers and hesitated to submit his manuscript.
And yet, what we have is a very fine piece of work, far beyond the
ability of the average beginner. The author must have written other
things.
"The novel is historical, with a New Orleans setting. Its treatment is
so detailed that only one who had lived here or had close connections
with this country could have produced it. Mr. Brewster, knowing that I
was about to travel south, asked me to see if I could discover our
missing author through his material. So far I have failed; our man is
unknown to any of the writers of the city or to any of those interested
in literary matters.
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