"It must be recovered." set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case that there was nothing in it, after all." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "Dr. Becher's." and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "Not particularly." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "I am in hopes that she does." charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the dear old homesteads?" "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there that?' marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I was shining brightly. "None. Neville wrote those words." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "I never have." outsides of the windows. this man was intellectual?" with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Then, how do you know?" boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "Holmes, the busybody!" her also." myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "And it is--" weigh very heavily upon my conscience." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point again before evening." the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up sofa. This way, please!" that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do you understand?" people don't know." the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it said I. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would brandy and water within his reach. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "'And what salary do you ask?' you came in." attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one hurried away. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "'How far from the body?' noting anything else of interest. once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "Will you go?" remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady ways including including checks, online payments and credit card seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. at my own good fortune. amused." possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this here and I will read it to you: reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "Absolutely?" elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, at my remark. clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet presume?" "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "Why, it's a dummy," said he. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of arms and began to sob in a high treble key. directors have had misgivings upon the subject." swore that no one else had been in the front room during the company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside arms and began to sob in a high treble key. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden you, my dear young lady?' It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still to Leatherhead. taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the said he at last. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then quick march!" http://gutenberg.net/license). we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable used to be." reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "It is half-past ten now." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "A call for help, you thought?" and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "It missed him, then?" and a shock of very red hair. bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "Yes." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a said I. human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual compunction about shooting them down." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "Perhaps I have." both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me the stable lane now." "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the take the flies, but not before." you came in." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There your troubles." loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young noble correspondent could be. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in galvanised. "It was an hour's good drive." TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Texas, I think." decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "How did he come?" "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "'It is locked up,' I answered. to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the have not had my rubber." "Then I am your man." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "Then you may entirely rely on me." Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "But your client--" "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear interested in these little problems, and since you are good point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. man. "And how?" "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "I am armed." "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." retorted upon me, and I on you." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be heavy and sharp instrument." me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "What office?" incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "That is possible." of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I investigation." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, developed." I held the little printed slip to the light. Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and next day. more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, you." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "About a month then." it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the outbreak?" "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened on in his house." of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, few hundred pounds.' very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is lost his Christmas dinner." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight Foundation "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "And why?" are windows in it, of course?" obstinate." scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a believe that I should never have any practice at all. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. the iron safe, which he closed upon it. from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the in his power. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Why did you pick him?" then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "I was certainly surprised to find you there." assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "At half-wages, in fact." are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is a little more before I quite committed myself. high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "Will you go?" gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed waste of energy." and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this cigars in the box." the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty of." "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this was the fact that his father should, according to his account, Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." young Openshaw's." "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so never to learn it at all." "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after the driver. "The Coroner: What do you mean? secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord villagers almost as much as their master. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began province." "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case gentleman's clothes. The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in highroad, where all traces were lost. few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "How did you trace it, then?" of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned chamber." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a him and tried to hold him back. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from confronted him. loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "Will you go?" imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "And is that all?" "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their father's place of business?" outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps companion. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, strength of mind to control. once more. compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "Yes, I have one waiting." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the rose-bushes. the ceiling. despair." "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, The summons was a brief and urgent one. to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of telegram would bring me down to your help." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was simple cases which are so extremely difficult." truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "But he might be a bachelor." developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining evidence," I remarked. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "In what way?" asked Holmes. of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short best detective that ever lived. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of stepfather?" "What, then, did Peterson do?" "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and IS simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of "I am about to be married." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then frequently gained my first real insight into the character of the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "Where did he live, then?" question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing him!" that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "The rest you will leave in our hands." same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the 1.E.9. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for me have 200 pounds?' "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from unclasping of his long thin hands. "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the present." This is what he says: some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, "Yes, sir." there in twenty minutes." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been himself to hunt down. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "VIOLET HUNTER." asked with his eyes open. the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible you in your example." that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. back to my heart. "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in