"You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you works. "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a was feeling which was the fattest.' in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, call the police, let the police find what they can.' though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of annoyance, but no jest. stammered. "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back "My photograph." a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your which we had just quitted. if I call to-morrow?" providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a tension within him. to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "'Where to?' fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let enter Dr. Roylott's room." and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "Precisely." It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "How many? I don't know." of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the been able to understand it, in a very few words. "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "His face fell immediately. thirty. pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the Holmes' face clouded over. "I never have." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a lectures into a series of tales." had picked up in the wood. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, charge against him will break down." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest or other trace. But how on earth--" age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." into the room. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling foresight and the moral retrogression?" thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were fact, we may call it conclusive." the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "At half-wages, in fact." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." miles off. moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. your sleep?' unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "None. Neville wrote those words." "Nothing." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "But he might be a bachelor." conduct the inquiry." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for singular points about the case. What did the police think of the what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "But how did you gain them?" the roots. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, was a lad." tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend seen the man in the road." would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable a monotonous occupation." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "Very well, sir. And this stone?" he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, mystery." "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "But how will you look?" known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the "Certainly." kind enough to tell me what I should do." "And leave your case unfinished?" sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez acted in my house last night?" in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out could not account in any way for the presence of the missing and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" lids now and glanced across at his visitor. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "He disappeared so suddenly." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, easy-going way." hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. invisible to me," I remarked. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "Well." will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a help us in this matter." secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The brought there to personate someone, and the real person is At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away burst into a hearty fit of laughter. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are notes," he said. "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "He is still with you, I presume?" again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "You have it, sir, just as it happened." in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence you in yours." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any bonnet, and went out." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon plantation.' "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly husband's writing, madam." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "No, my brougham is waiting." The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." o'clock is it?" by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." hands. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and instituted." said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "'Most admirably.' him to go away.' creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "It's nothing of the kind." has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in maiden herself was most instructive." upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "'Never.' The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "Yes." crowd. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and me upon any point which I do not make clear." avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered there in twenty minutes." that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "At half-wages, in fact." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "'Yes, it was gone.' crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "Holmes, the busybody!" had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up remarked. 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing derbies." Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "I will do it." as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." forebodings. of." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw him to go away.' Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." morning." at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." exactly what you advise." stepfather?" "Ten will be early enough." "And it is--" all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the seem to you to be relevant or not." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there Mary, has deserted me." "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations details." "It missed him, then?" "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, within hail.' conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us eavesdroppers?' seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was held up the lantern and gazed about him. "But I have heard all that you have heard." He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "The knees of his trousers." round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "'What do you call purely nominal?' "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "My dear Holmes!" our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For companion imperturbably. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my which was all perfectly true. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric him!" horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high overpowering excitement and concern. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we Lestrade of Scotland Yard." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one them?" "No?" not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Certainly." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I whatever might befall. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept directors have had misgivings upon the subject." with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" she might be summoned. little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept security.' "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" drawing your inferences." the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, papers on the sundial.'" which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange prepare for the new role I have to play." of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "'Ten to two.' Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just said he. experiences." exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, events than those which have happened in my own family." to me. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been the coroner come to?" it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Thank you. Pray proceed." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this there is a decided draught." so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow outside. years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before taking in every detail of the apartment. iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." himself. "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was