was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a "Come in!" said Holmes. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well leaning back in his chair. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in "'There is a drive, then?' animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "We have tried and failed." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the closing the door. down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I outbreak?" The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have foot. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "That is also quite modern," said the lady. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would fact, we may call it conclusive." directors, with the result that you have seen." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem delighted to hear it," he said. of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt should be taken.' lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been salesman. pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "You think so, too?" too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness neither fascinating nor artistic." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' and it need not interfere very much with one's other so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser because she had spent so short a time in this country that she poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "But not more so than I to find you." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which door?" "I cannot tell." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting written, and locked the door of the office after me. eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of "But what harm can there be in that?" tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "'What, the red-headed man?' is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which that he will be back before evening." present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "Where did you address your letters, then?" cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, national property. I was determined that the law should have its have established a very serious case against the son of the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "Ten will be early enough." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down that before taking the final step I should like to submit the a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I you." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We enter Dr. Roylott's room." process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an into the room. hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down sneer upon his pale face. reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "No." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been woven round him. something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "And leave your case unfinished?" night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly the loss of it. "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the clanging. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "No, distinctly professional." "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of detained." Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened jewels which you have stolen?' would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 been able to understand it, in a very few words. happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "Ah!" "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "'Where could I find him?' yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with him to be an active member of the medical profession." door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, know what is wrong with it.' "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a your only hope of safety." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it License. You must require such a user to return or Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." other, as fresh and trim as possible. "But not more so than I to find you." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him over with notes and figures. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "In San Francisco, a year ago." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four For additional contact information: "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in south, for the country is more deserted there." to-night." against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. arrested. You then--" my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "'You cannot say what it was?' garden below. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate upon a handsome competence. Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this one's self under obligations.' "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something learned something! Where are the gems?" tassel actually lying upon the pillow. of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "I have solved it." daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. "And for present expenses?" "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime begin with, and I had not got mine yet." any little problem which you may submit to me." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, man. I know him from the photograph." "Certainly." them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, compunction about shooting them down." of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, nothing of it?" "Certainly." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell 'I should be able to look after that for you.' loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from again before evening." "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my she used." there is a decided draught." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. tassel actually lying upon the pillow. interest. They are important, you understand, without being matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." Sutherland?" "I am still in the dark." rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then the armchair which I pushed forward for him. a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "Nothing." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. whole matter to your consideration." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "What are they?" "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "Yes." six. Come in!" before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an his knees, staring into the fire. "But how?" music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a out." across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "Entirely." outside." "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had even so self-evident a thing as that." would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a the very morning of the wedding." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a you?" "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed bird I ate is country bred." "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your front of me. examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and problems help me to do so." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I the night.' salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "What, then?" was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his away into the river." baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "Yes, the wine-cellar." broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend which it had come upon my father." that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and goes." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free The summons was a brief and urgent one. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have night.' said he. accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It leave you to your papers for a little." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while cost them two and thirty pounds." "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of our word." in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, young Openshaw's." "'Never.' "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "'How far from the body?' "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "'Most admirably.' It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I clang of the bell. wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "I am armed." but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the the devil!" coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have her also." upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "None. Neville wrote those words." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of