gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked empty. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. morning." we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "He is dead," cried several voices. grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure furiously. the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong salesman. made him keep the appointment." into the room. could not have written that. It is the German who is so this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, For additional contact information: judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy not come at once?" at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper the date of his supposed suicide." go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." particular state visit http://pglaf.org paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here lamp in his hand. house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Yes, at the mines." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "ARAT," I read. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "You have compromised yourself seriously." "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them thirty. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own second window is the one that I jumped from." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard him nearly every evening." have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I mystery may be cleared along those lines." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the telegram would bring me down to your help." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that "Nothing?" Mrs. Toller serenely. "We were both in the photograph." have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, bill, which interests me deeply." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible that he has suffered." and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his Clair, of Lee." of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple gigantic client. "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "So I have heard." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, asked. have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle gigantic client. crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one Chief Executive and Director as he folded up the epistle. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Absolutely none." opportunities to fix the problem. arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, examine." old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "And what did you see?" it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. here and I will read it to you: waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the habit of advancing money.' throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said into the room. labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before learned something! Where are the gems?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "That is easily got." "But you would not advise me to refuse?" its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily companion. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is rose-bushes. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in affection." "I say it is." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it sufficient punishment." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom "I say that I have solved it." Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal straightened it out again. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "Seven!" I answered. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you thin legs towards the fire. vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that details." are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, which our visitor detailed to us. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life morning." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed Sutherland. given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of already been minutely examined." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the "That is easily got." where Mr. Fordham shows you.' freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with "But I am all in the dark." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "Dirty?" any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for to take care of herself." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly father's place of business?" "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "'Then let me do so?' and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY which was all perfectly true. a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "That sounds a little paradoxical." "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' and a shock of very red hair. you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "Who was the criminal, then?" or in danger--" the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, my little problems." correct than the official force." carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was breakfast and whispered something to her husband. every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right suggested at once that there must be a communication between the a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My bachelor.' of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps the coronet at all injured?" Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." returning from some small jollification and was making his way had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the tapping his fingers upon the table. long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "Yes?" "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, said he. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without if she died from some sudden fright." such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not careless servant girl?" "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a would then never go into court at all." "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how prisoner's face. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did way: their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign nonsense.' perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "'Never.' chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "By train from Waterloo." seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, of it with the greatest attention. Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. swore that no one else had been in the front room during the newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, noting anything else of interest. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at points to suicide?" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, troubles have been weighing upon his mind. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "That is easily got." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "But not more so than I to find you." first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, dramatic, in fact." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "That you are never beaten." "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." formed some opinion?" seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "And how did you verify them?" knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "No, thank goodness, she did not." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "9th. McCauley cleared. had no one to advise her at such a crisis." so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "I shall most certainly do so." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "And what did you learn from him?" against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than indiscretion." might help us?" With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "'In my own bureau.' not, dad?" she asked. whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "One?" opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at get her out of the way." 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the are, I think, all that we need." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction Holmes rather sternly. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "Your French gold?" yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back other lovers by making love himself." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence me." vanished into the darkness. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being presume?" distance from the station, and there we found the young lady departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small sneer upon his pale face. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End colonel looking down at me. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "'How far from the body?' unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in was lame." that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "The King of Scandinavia." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. any little problem which you may submit to me." carried out of court." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and have had none more fantastic than this." lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And the general public were present, then?" I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in without a word or a look. "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "And did you observe any change in her then?" of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my his huge brown hands. of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for which our visitor detailed to us. places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it