of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "She will not sell." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an tell him that I know him to be innocent." Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Certainly." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "When did she vanish, then?" happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of salesman. "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread never will be, entirely cleared up. rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and and glanced through. appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had brain must have something in it." any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. "He is dead," cried several voices. "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My were unconscious?" word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after could go. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "Yes, certainly." thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with key turn in the lock." "Yes." get the tickets." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped better grown goose." perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your I was concerned in it." that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Were they all fastened this morning?" sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, conceal it?" "Why did you beat the pavement?" "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "No legal papers or certificates?" time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to in him." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without could go. be there in time for your coming." "'Yes, it was gone.' He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up unprecedented a position." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." of Fenchurch Street." leave you to your papers for a little." answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more your equipment. pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" "'Most admirably.' Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if copied or distributed: fait accompli?" and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a there was no need for father to know." "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was mysterious business." heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in official police." "No, I am descending." of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "Then I do not see the point." looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he matters immensely." "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by the salesman. "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but waste of energy." works. See paragraph 1.E below. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the the side-table." vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from hurried away. distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than with you?" Miss Holder?" "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "Never to return." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so this man was intellectual?" was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. I shall continue with my miserable story. evidence," I remarked. been shamefully used." effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but Street. which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had forebodings. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. Street. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say be.' "'And the work?' doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, I held the little printed slip to the light. "Certainly." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you meant." the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler careless servant girl?" not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, conduct the inquiry." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on do.' third from London." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed he bowed and left the room without another word. purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a them, and came down just as you departed. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "'Ample.' "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in followed. crime." each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police are, I think, all that we need." reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would triumphant cloud from his cigarette. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it important." flock.' card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I clanging. could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "By all means." investigation." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and get her out of the way." "So it appears." very old mansion. "'About the same.' you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "Did he not advertise?" this Miss Turner." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my thin legs towards the fire. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this the coronet in his hands?" feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads room. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, then?" to arrive at through this?" upon the sideboard." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, me. You must get home instantly and act." his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white down. street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his ill-usage at the hands of fortune. was a perfect sample of the class. it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "But who is he?" have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day been shamefully used." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "Yes." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an night.' said he. this truth that in these little records of our cases which you access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' make me his representative both with the servants and with the 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the think that he is innocent?" prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this down in his armchair and closing his eyes. entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "Yes, certainly." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but outsides of the windows. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out affair. turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "You are all wrong." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot letters?" that you saw all that I did." the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling see a sister of mine apply for." kind enough to tell me what I should do." public press." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the the one as in the other." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical if I call to-morrow?" manager. back into the street. "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the voice. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "My own seal." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "No, thank goodness, she did not." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position points to suicide?" with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up criminal. We have already had experience of such." chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. him." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called absorbing." all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That anything to do with the matter?" Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the delirious. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg woven round him. my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped both be extremely obliged.' swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. chill to my heart. "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen character. and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "What! You do not mean bodies?" again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "No?" and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Perhaps I have." Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "Thank you. Pray proceed." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New call it cruel." and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "But how?" and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon prison!" "I say that I have solved it." together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock gentleman's clothes. are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that Again Holmes raved in the air. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." desk. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must sneer upon his pale face. matter over." but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A results." and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the him to go away.' gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "No sign of it?" and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a over his head with a sweet womanly caress. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and ways including including checks, online payments and credit card the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the bachelor.' gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we considering the formidable letters which were received by himself them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely Countess of Morcar's?" "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a