"Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads other means.' really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "Will you bet, then?" murdered man." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Yes, it would be as well." and the colonel ushered me in. set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 floor. "It is very clear." to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "It certainly sounds feasible." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as 1.E.9. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "What is it?" "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. one's self under obligations.' chamber." "Then you may be so with me." so.' "Do you know him?" of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "This photograph!" and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Pray let us have it, for all that." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you retorted upon me, and I on you." them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "Why did you beat the pavement?" brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep his fortune, and I went back to pa. "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. "It may not come to that," said Holmes. with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "His face fell immediately. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "The doctor?" man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. if I call to-morrow?" He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal is acting for the best. he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself I held the little printed slip to the light. "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or present." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "No, thank goodness, she did not." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "There is the writing." places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the which are rolled in Rotterdam." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds four million human beings all jostling each other within the entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle all-comprehensive glances. and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "But how will you look?" "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "I will try. What is it?" away to you." "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in astonishment. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "It must be recovered." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "'Entirely.' and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for "ARAT," I read. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was Doctor, of the paper and the date." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. "I am to be neutral?" for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, the bottom.' other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I was once confined in the cab my mission was practically from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "Perhaps I have." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "Yes, it was twisted." "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "By all means." place no limit on the sum I may draw." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "A greater distance to travel." "No bad?" hour?' "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the we went to search for him, face downward in a little had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been just called myself is not exactly my own." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at your room." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "Was he the only applicant?" lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "I guessed as much." arrangements." to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought morning." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "And how did you verify them?" meant." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known spare." "But how?" "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two may never be exposed to such a temptation." scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "A thing like a cleaver," said he. shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" he died? visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news to you." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from that there was nothing in it, after all." came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his business came to an end." "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, long narrative. flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy eavesdroppers?' interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "At half-wages, in fact." grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "9th. McCauley cleared. "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. me have 200 pounds?' Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have legal crime." empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "10th. John Swain cleared. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in some place of shelter and let the county police know what has it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, for the market.' of this gang." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" companion. to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something way in." thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the purpose of examination. "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week persecution?" would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. beg that you will break it off." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker interested in these little problems, and since you are good thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, neither fascinating nor artistic." you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist take the flies, but not before." thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see Mrs. Toller serenely. docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "It is very kind of you." such person." and no precautions can guard against." attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. "None." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for events, Mr. Windibank!" man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! six. Come in!" It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. "What then?" "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face there when the Rucastles went away." little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you be.' "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at Cross for the Continent." glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in cheerful." It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their child?' the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully in his hands." case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start second." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to Holmes. play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do opened the door, and slipped through. "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "About a month then." started for the Temple to see my husband. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at little trying to do so much typewriting?" all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the could go. "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I papers must be those that are destroyed.' possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden of receipt of the work. in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to British peeress.'" at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with emerged. suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner what I may call a really hard day's work." house for five minutes.' clang of the bell. everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into intimate personal affairs in this public manner." have one." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements suggested at once that there must be a communication between the I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel perplexity from it to my illustrious client. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "No, I think that I'll take it." the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" kind enough to tell me what I should do." "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "No, finished." tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's held up the lantern and gazed about him. yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. newspaper selections." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she question. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may before the coroner and the police-court." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation bare slabs of marble. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." awkward doing business with an alias." "One of his hands." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature hereditary King of Bohemia." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "Were they all fastened this morning?" window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "I warn you that they are very incomplete." indeed happy." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. one of the states of the Union." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found you." at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked highroad, where all traces were lost. gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "Holmes, the busybody!" "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "His face fell immediately. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "I assure you that I am in your hands." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "And what did you see?" my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our into the bag, and made for the door. "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous