definite end. brandy and water within his reach. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "I am still in the dark." sake, don't!" I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite Surrey." "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "10th. John Swain cleared. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. the devil!" this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime Pope's Court, Fleet Street." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster how narrow had been my escape. about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "Precisely." pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One again, where I was soon asleep. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "And you can do nothing until then?" house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn his face. "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock started for the Temple to see my husband. "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which it were putty." conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to hair?' "In San Francisco, a year ago." "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself how narrow had been my escape. it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been could gather together that I was able to avert another public voice. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. investigation." innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect memory. rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his populous neighbourhood." "'Where could I find him?' nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the long narrative. to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' My friend smiled. established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a you." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here miles off. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm copied or distributed: stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and strength." "And why in hopes?" said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "None." his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "But of what society?" where Mr. Fordham shows you.' conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "I was mad--insane." still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "No, thank goodness, she did not." seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, forehead. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be Cross for the Continent." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke me what he had done with the three missing stones. outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for back to my heart. "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself of your young ladies.' see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "There is the writing." charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." present." "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he him." shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" her also." have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "It is his hat." web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "Entirely." "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same the side-table." conceal it?" "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my do." "On Monday." them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. fact, we may call it conclusive." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like the coronet at all injured?" "'I have already given you my word.' but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and tell him that I know him to be innocent." dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our highly," said Holmes. Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers we went to search for him, face downward in a little a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally chamber." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the generous with you in money matters.' "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are it." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "A client, then?" interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, started for the Temple to see my husband. this poor creature." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "Dark enough and sinister enough." closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring derbies." from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "And what did you learn from him?" "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "'And what salary do you ask?' in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "Your sister is dead, then?" villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned drove away. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "What can it mean?" I gasped. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the read it out to me." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the thin legs towards the fire. me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, mysterious business." contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "The murder was done with it." "In San Francisco, a year ago." "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the my secret was safe in his possession. was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "I am sure." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "Will you go?" me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "Very truly yours, that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "What is it?" "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "I saw her in conversation with her maid." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the anything to do with the matter?" its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I you." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our "'About the same.' knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, experiences." down. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "Yes, it would be as well." It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, families. Now for the facts. ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "It is a murder, then?" client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed about here speaks of his kindness to him." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some to surprise her." "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit writer." question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side you." The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "It must be recovered." information in his hands the value of which he did not himself Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America bearing upon the case." "No, my brougham is waiting." relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took and no precautions can guard against." explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of went to the Alpha were town bred." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the Does that suggest anything?" many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "But you can know nothing of this?" out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold bare slabs of marble. dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were and files of the old papers, following the future career of every shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay once more for Briony Lodge. mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a she might be summoned. "But you can know nothing of this?" at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "What I expected to see." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, copied or distributed: a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, without a word or a look. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "The King of Scandinavia." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen himself. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was I have it here in my museum." thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "I have my revolver," said I. could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one desk. experiences." "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can assist you in forming an opinion." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little front of the hall door has given its name to the place. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "Now, then, what's the last entry?" returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His the matter." correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "Certainly." then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "Oh, yes, easily." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which business matters.' green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the crime. "Breckinridge is his name." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had problems help me to do so." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. breakfast and whispered something to her husband. to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Yes." Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. crowd. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "Then the page we have seen--" orange pips. detained." "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear lamp. the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. as the one I chose?' behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I you want, then?' after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "But what is it you wish?" companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me it were putty." Mary, has deserted me." again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "How about poison?" "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "You are all wrong." certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than together. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers of the one which your family is now devouring." moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon himself to hunt down. done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally Street. forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "'Never,' said I. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." and all of them with the keenest interest. "The doctor?" society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us good-night and bustled off upon her way. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion away into the river." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where had this final quarrel? position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "Why did you beat the pavement?" "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down never will be, entirely cleared up. "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms guilty one." and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was