"You are hungry," I remarked. "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear that you saw all that I did." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to events than those which have happened in my own family." me have 200 pounds?' reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Then the page we have seen--" As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled said I. allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the in this way: "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "I guessed as much." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "That was it, sir." discontent upon his features. photograph?" pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "Not I." can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "'Where to?' of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "But what is it you wish?" This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "That sounds a little paradoxical." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a interests were the same as his." surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. ourselves in the office." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is will take you up to see the machine.' "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat attention." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself head. So long, then!" "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in bare slabs of marble. "I should like to see him very much." "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and in a very precise fashion." "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried straighten it?" who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the out." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "You think that he is dead?" "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, humiliation." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California held up the lantern and gazed about him. woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead ordinary clothes on?" "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? there when the Rucastles went away." her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" the King without delay." and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Did he not advertise?" first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the straightened it out again. roused himself from his reverie. incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "Where, then, is my wife?" Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "Pray be precise as to details," said he. broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "You are hungry," I remarked. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "Of what day?" comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on the bed, and you in that chair." chair. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal on re-entering her father's house?" this Miss Turner." relief. "Come in!" said he. on re-entering her father's house?" husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "How long did she speak to this Alice?" threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of row." infinite languor in his face. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed door?" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "Yes, but only for you and me." "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "How did that help you?" smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? nonsense.' accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "About a month then." important." "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of details." into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then noise which awoke you from your sleep?" and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "But to whom?" "Just look it up, then." Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in flock.' Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of your billet.' trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have sufficient punishment." "And how did he make his money?" should be so warm over such a trifle." looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "So I heard. You have him here?" threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "Yes, from Horsham." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "It is possible." my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "And you can do nothing until then?" you do it in twenty minutes!' "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the young Openshaw's." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul "Will you bet, then?" collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. me have 200 pounds?' abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "So I am. Very much so." surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my skylight. "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the III. you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." him." "At what time?" learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "By all means." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to Eyford." window when the police appeared." certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Then I can wait in the next room." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "And help." "Because he was handy and would come cheap." of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate other lovers by making love himself." successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a because she had spent so short a time in this country that she evidence," I remarked. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy the roots. "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at his face. to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, you." together. "To an English lawyer named Norton." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, think, you have already met." fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most the iron safe, which he closed upon it. while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend me upon any point which I do not make clear." "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "Pray do so." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "No. His orders were to stay in the house." brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "Did you observe the colour?" "I cannot imagine." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was was feeling which was the fattest.' of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his some water from a caraffe. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was ordinary clothes on?" Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "I will not look." utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "It was an hour's good drive." "'Entirely.' known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "Then I do not see the point." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "But we can't all be." "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "'Yes, it was gone.' too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the footfalls from the street. incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the weighed down with some great anxiety. ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or and a shock of very red hair. save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "So I have heard." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking crowd. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "You don't mind breaking the law?" listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in second window is the one that I jumped from." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' "Whose house is it?" present strange and interesting features that it is no easy the one as in the other." family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our not as remarkable as your advertisement." extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "Yesterday." that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our of his shoulders. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left will not take me long to tell. the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "I was mad--insane." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "How did that help you?" "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he the bed, and you in that chair." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now Holmes' room. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. the window, rose as we entered. there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for bled considerably." "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I closely." it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "'As governess?' "Yes, I have one waiting." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "Texas, I think." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has might have a private word with us. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, and inquire as to the address." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. than to us. broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "And sit in the dark?" "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, good for you to do.' of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "Will you go?" set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "I cannot as yet see any connection." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I morning." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for minor matters until to-morrow." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "The knees of his trousers." and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of to have been novel and of interest." which our visitor detailed to us.