really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in that threaten you." purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. Holmes' face clouded over. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all My friend smiled. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "Ha! you find it so?" questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend some place of shelter and let the county police know what has swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side might help us?" "They are typewritten," I remarked. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "I have come for advice." could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "Always." perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an American. Then who could this American be, and why should he inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "But how?" said he. "Well, some hundreds of times." key of the affair now." came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them this man was intellectual?" continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in bearing upon the case." http://www.gutenberg.net see me here to avoid scandal." you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all suddenly upon us." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, the Assizes." really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." my little problems." and the colonel ushered me in. black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in meant it for the best. felt?" yourselves in at night?" myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "It is his hat." my friend's incisive reasoning. happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "Come in!" said Holmes. at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the bare slabs of marble. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of should be taken.' shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of this as likely?" perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though strength." very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, presume?" The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him the warnings." Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "Pray be precise as to details," said he. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "Ample." really the only notable feature about the thing." Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter to surprise her." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "Yes." from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "I am following you closely," I answered. bedroom door." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in and your relations to her." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me she to prove their authenticity?" "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in events than those which have happened in my own family." to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front as he folded up the epistle. with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "And for present expenses?" "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "I cannot think." Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there o'clock is it?" wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "I am to be neutral?" there when the Rucastles went away." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I his knees, staring into the fire. breakfast." seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his singular points about the case. What did the police think of the grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "The murder was done with it." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. vault. wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over the Assizes." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss depend upon your compliance." X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man affair. problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "'I have already given you my word.' several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of to tackle the facts." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time on re-entering her father's house?" from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is away into the river." very old mansion. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its I think that I could be of assistance to you." card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a as the one I chose?' "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it of note-paper. It read in this fashion: other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "That was it, sir." over part of the map. "What do you read?" "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "ARAT," I read. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We room?" on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one advice." his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "You horrify me!" of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "So it appears." counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp it." rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I had a long day." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. then?" of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager it. engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, Holmes' thin, eager face. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into him!" "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "Very murderous indeed." if only as a check to my own memory." "Can I be of assistance?" bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted and all of them with the keenest interest. "And how?" in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry purpose of examination. doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "'Certainly not. But why?' But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the strength in the others." enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same which our visitor detailed to us. wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots open." foresight and the moral retrogression?" is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." vanished into the darkness. clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "And how have you succeeded?" questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that the room while you explain this matter?" and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I Mary, has deserted me." "And for present expenses?" Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said this unhappy family?" whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, will not take me long to tell. Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who know what is wrong with it.' the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "You have carte blanche." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "'How far from the body?' I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "A thing like a cleaver," said he. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "In answer to an advertisement." suddenly upon us." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "Do you know him?" "'What do you call purely nominal?' "And that is--" while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "It's nothing of the kind." And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his see me here to avoid scandal." repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "What then?" and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "And you thought he was pulled back?" "Yes, I have one waiting." answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem most interesting one." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have yards of it?' matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I least a fellow-countryman. is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its his fortune, and I went back to pa. "Absolutely?" Dr. Gregory B. Newby a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "How did he come?" children over to America with him, so that I found myself without knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather coroner's jury." father's place of business?" was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not been with you?" still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "Have you it here?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' think that he is innocent?" "'Where could I find him?' "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "How do you know, then?" you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it never to learn it at all." and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Do you go out much in society?" machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was