"'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate promised to bring home. "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "Witness: It was. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "What! Had he lost his wife?" Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal gone. important." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and to Leatherhead. an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' you." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are you in your example." "'Never,' said I. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can John Swain, of St. Augustine. "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots business." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other the Red-headed League." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid there were one or two details which were new to me. But the I. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, instituted." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my when you have done it." interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said third from London." the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Of Friday, June 19th." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Yes." anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the who was a member of your goose club." very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their married her." a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the way in everything. she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "It certainly sounds feasible." a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled little trying to do so much typewriting?" this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the undoubtedly my uncle's." once more to my work. his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "She showed me, as I told you she would." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Certainly, madam." my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from recall any case within my experience which looked at the first sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if Young McCarthy must be got off, however." his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the them, and came down just as you departed. "By no means." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of call for it in person on Monday morning.' know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "'Certainly not.' "That you are never beaten." one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself congenial hunt. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about now. It seems that there had been some informality about their five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was might have a private word with us. I approached. "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, sit on the left-hand side of the driver." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "Yes, that is the Crown." "I know where it is." short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying in the port of London." Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and silent! Oh, he will be silent!' problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly our word." terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, his wife has ceased to love him." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I back into the street. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, from the brougham. Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "Stolen, then." transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was memory. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be of this gang." "But what will you do?" the so-precious time, but come!' will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an "'Yes.' least a fellow-countryman. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly coat-tails." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at formed some opinion?" second window is the one that I jumped from." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly and looked back. with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations McCarthy's innocence. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and His smile broadened. so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel not personally threatened." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long already been minutely examined." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "It is true that I have been generally successful." wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "'Certainly,' I answered. delirious. stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "How on earth--" strong and stiff." labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I The King stared at him in amazement. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of one's self under obligations.' reach." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "'I am sure if I had known--' a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so that threaten you." meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the London for the present?" say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Only as much as we can deduce." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "10th. John Swain cleared. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "You are certainly joking, Holmes." so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "Stolen." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "In what way?" asked Holmes. the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "But she will refuse." as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at floor. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life beyond words. of." "Thank you. Pray proceed." "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking Have you good authority for what you say?" ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let infinite languor in his face. them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was touch that coronet?' good-night and bustled off upon her way. imbecility!" he cried. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project the matter?" have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that a monotonous occupation." act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that heavy and sharp instrument." have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the the running down." He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are information in his hands the value of which he did not himself have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the coroner's jury." from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "The best possible." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I frequently gained my first real insight into the character of go--none." two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was and shall probably return to London by the evening train." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "And how did he make his money?" sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey before, for it was considerably after midnight. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in Farm upon the left." "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that chemical work which was so dear to him. absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, to-night's adventure." very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "What then?" which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and never will be, entirely cleared up. we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough danger is over." "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "And that is--" from you?" "I do." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen money should be paid at once.' in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "What will you say?" his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these your equipment. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, maid will bring up your coffee." the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "No, distinctly professional." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the experiences." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. you came in." it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "Which are?" the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn some mystery and the punishment of some crime." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which lost his Christmas dinner." in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would rose-bushes. "Then, how do you know?" say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "9th. McCauley cleared. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would as this. Pray let me have the details." Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "You were travelling in the States?" He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "I will not look." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon carriage. It was a chestnut." "Get out!" said he. "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case which was all perfectly true. again, where I was soon asleep. furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do row." when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, is acting for the best. jewels which you have stolen?' and files of the old papers, following the future career of every street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got foresight and the moral retrogression?" Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "Certainly." seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were know what is wrong with it.' nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "I will, Miss Turner." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical "Where did he live, then?" "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than of a light. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls a monotonous occupation." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is have had none more fantastic than this." "'Entirely.' paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in way: past. mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a any." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "In answer to an advertisement." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow,