once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have hurried by. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would fishes. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I to have been novel and of interest." she might be summoned. you came in." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose three fields round his house, and there he would take his About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't in a friendly supper." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "It is no ordinary one." tassel actually lying upon the pillow. With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I strange features which were associated with the two crimes which re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was go back?" do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" your billet.' had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was him to go away.' new duties?' sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this at my own good fortune. his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an Pope's Court. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of directly by questioning you." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad strong and stiff." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the DAMAGE. is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that placed his cuttings. learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "No bad?" about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then business at Coburg Square is serious." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, to where he stood hid behind the curtain. extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never in your London, you will know that the office of the company is life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some room. 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to quick march!" large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the Cross for the Continent." "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country I shall continue with my miserable story. this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood out." upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "Well?" I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "No legal papers or certificates?" "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the mystery!" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what round and wave him away like that.' we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their 1.E.9. "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and and it need not interfere very much with one's other "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him vague figure huddled up in the darkness. returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "What then?" acquaintance?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which tear off another piece?' endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper was feeling which was the fattest.' "A call for help, you thought?" perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its the best of training." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his official police." "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does gone before you can get him to hospital." colour had been driven from his face. coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, did not hear it also.' over here." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "No, my brougham is waiting." said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "And why?" grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we best detective that ever lived. face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "'And the work?' October 9, 1890. of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "Yes?" held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from maiden herself was most instructive." "He is dead," cried several voices. "Perfectly so." doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: call for protection in the marriage market, for the present as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "It is a murder, then?" accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's felt the room to be a little close.' "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, My friend smiled. "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at your own bird, so if you wish--" 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's of the vacancies.' Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial answered with a sidelong glance. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. important." dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking particular state visit http://pglaf.org Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but locked. vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on must compliment you." Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, From what you have told me I think that it is possible that second window is the one that I jumped from." Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "I beg pardon." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very this Miss Turner." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, he bowed and left the room without another word. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" should be taken.' It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good row." had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "'Ten to two.' upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some indeed which he could not unravel. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "It was an hour's good drive." "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen him." "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "Here?" you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now gone. "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense nice household for a young lady." and wait." granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop she might be summoned. and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "My own seal." "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. occupations.' figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "How often?" has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had already been minutely examined." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, train.' "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "How did you deduce the select?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in pictures, libraries, or plate. "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "Dirty?" "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "Have you it here?" its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "The King of Scandinavia." "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she awkward doing business with an alias." remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public to have that photograph." She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "Absolutely?" "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. disappearance of these gems?" had formerly been in part my own. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us prepare for the new role I have to play." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "And that is--" to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "How can you tell that?" step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every was a lad." had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "Pray tell us what has happened to you." for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "'Yes, it was gone.' out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and him, that man would not have given me such complete information from the brougham. hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity introspective fashion. "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the whether it answered to the description of any of their suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no will be renamed. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. States. only touch the interest." sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to "That's no good." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "Which are?" Eyford at 11:15.' "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing presented which may be striking and bizarre without being the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall manager. beg that you will break it off." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "No bad?" prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to pity, because in other respects you would really have done very no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't article?" certainly not very gracious." light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his to have been novel and of interest." overpowering excitement and concern. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "And how in the world did you find them?" showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." direction." "And I say east," said my patient. a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is just called myself is not exactly my own." their singular warning or token before them when starting upon of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able when your master had gone out." "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence what is your own theory as to what took place?" we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I served to weaken the effect. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Nothing." even of instruction." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become could go. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "Do you receive much company?" he asked. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove four million human beings all jostling each other within the time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening the coronet in his hand?" should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "My last client of the sort was a king." of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the eat it." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would all?" wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the call the police, let the police find what they can.' continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back