perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "There are none." Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will asked with his eyes open. no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and What do you deduce from it?" even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be particular state visit http://pglaf.org "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A that?' it? Did I buy the geese off you?" At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the laugh and put his lips to my ear. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," writing, and yet I know it well." once more. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. the night.' "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so the Assizes." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "And I say east," said my patient. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of peculiar to him. world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society his eyes and forehead. "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the name is different." "I have come for advice." We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "Which surely he restored to their owner?" light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of The summons was a brief and urgent one. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the is," said he presently: perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday may have an influence upon European history." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I trifles." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, be. crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who feature." pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said from the brougham. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "Your French gold?" upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "What, then, did Peterson do?" "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Certainly, madam." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house would then never go into court at all." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "Did he not advertise?" with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only these bleak autumnal evenings." The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to hurried by. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "Stolen, then." until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to present strange and interesting features that it is no easy (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, an introduction to him?" too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our said Mr. Holder. "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at she to prove their authenticity?" "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given memory. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. case before our client came into the room." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "I am all attention, madam." who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found bled considerably." association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors coroner's jury." shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "When did she vanish, then?" round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that that you saw all that I did." have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice page at http://pglaf.org successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "I see many objections to any such theory." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Yes." He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and to change my dress. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the which I could not give. He asked for Alice. signal between you and your father? tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite public press." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "It's nothing of the kind." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. think, you have already met." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the floor. foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and presented which may be striking and bizarre without being Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who absolutely follow my advice in every respect." is a common subject for conversation. "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I then?" down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "The landlord of the Alpha." Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, will not take me long to tell. and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his carried out of court." "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." papers diligently of late, have you not?" swore that no one else had been in the front room during the an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "'Then let me do so?' I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "It is true that I have been generally successful." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, Count Von Kramm." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "'Most admirably.' "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." License. You must require such a user to return or something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was triumphant cloud from his cigarette. black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. residence of the great financier. have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I not interfere, come what may. You understand?" have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting desk. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, the running down." "What then?" fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is away to you." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "So I heard. You have him here?" '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "A greater distance to travel." Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? business at Coburg Square is serious." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." pound a week." That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we of a light. the coronet in his hand?" "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "And how did you verify them?" "What is it?" never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "You don't mind breaking the law?" Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party crime. or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy wedding?" "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she might have a private word with us. in one or two places in England?' "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew narrative." possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the to a light-house. "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how redistribution. if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking written, and locked the door of the office after me. works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "'Certainly,' I answered. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. Street. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "Pray let us have it, for all that." salesman. "Where, indeed?" and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. the nursery. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "It surprised me." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society was a perfect sample of the class. for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of call you and give you the chance." takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "And help." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Thank you. Pray proceed." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue now. It seems that there had been some informality about their who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "I have my revolver," said I. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, here and I will read it to you: will be renamed. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until me what he had done with the three missing stones. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a your only hope of safety." "And you don't know his address?" "I never have." to-morrow." occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. be. there." broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "It is a murder, then?" to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, in this note: business." It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it desk. of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with we went to search for him, face downward in a little See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, carried out of court." suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "And your mother is alive?" thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "It looks newer than the other things?" from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "It is possible." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in cheerful." "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" their singular warning or token before them when starting upon Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "And how in the world did you find them?" transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his during which he might have communicated with his friend the little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with nothing of it?" the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and interests were the same as his." fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax depend upon my doing so.' should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. to Leatherhead. staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "About a month then." "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The the Red-headed League." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and to where he stood hid behind the curtain. individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his to tell." much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One