a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life prepare for the new role I have to play." "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, front of me. As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "But his left-handedness." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and tension within him. Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small most interesting one." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "Why, it's a dummy," said he. To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence his huge brown hands. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "Do you receive much company?" he asked. are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "And it is--" come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent will take you up to see the machine.' "Here?" he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without colour had been driven from his face. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's hardly wander." had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger business matters.' felt?" present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing are windows in it, of course?" "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales dramatic, in fact." with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "But you would not advise me to refuse?" Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with to surprise her." "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I then?" where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He fact, we may call it conclusive." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which IS desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. to Leatherhead. passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "Won't it ring?" after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "The gentleman I describe." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." and glanced through. only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we best detective that ever lived. served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" locked." "Just look it up, then." in this way: her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "The best possible." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." be. of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be gives a meaning to it." took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "Yes, there are nearly always some there." Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been chemical work which was so dear to him. "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where me." feature." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love must be when I saw the door open.' "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "How can you tell that?" main points of my analysis." standing smiling on the door-step. Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen For additional contact information: "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," sake, don't!" harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "Murdered?" "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he The summons was a brief and urgent one. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to arrive at through this?" in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or humiliation." some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on annoyance, but no jest. "No." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old suggested at once that there must be a communication between the solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley which we had just quitted. have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of three fields round his house, and there he would take his "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "ARAT," I read. seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "I am about to be married." the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of bird of prey. the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the "Yes." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive and wait." went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, fact, we may call it conclusive." disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "Precisely." mystery." was already answered. I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest other, as fresh and trim as possible. their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the whatever might befall. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind answer." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was skylight. My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the daring than any effort of the imagination." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for the so-precious time, but come!' Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few such attractions and accomplishments?' but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "But his lameness?" A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "The King of Scandinavia." "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I begun to whiten, even as mine has." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the to that open window." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had delirious. so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "Absolutely?" colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "What! You do not mean bodies?" you." "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "'Very good.' crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "From his hat?" station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of and shall probably return to London by the evening train." adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence of receipt of the work. waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered done what I asked you, Jones?" the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and and your relations to her." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I in a friendly supper." assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "He said too much." preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. II. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been London for the present?" "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are shall use the carriage to-night." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he ashen face. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted again on its way. crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "And your mother is alive?" wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not matter over." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. shoulder; "he's all right." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major not interfere, come what may. You understand?" cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "Of what day?" fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that off." my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at Pope's Court, Fleet Street." out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "Quite so." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "What is it, then--a fire?" papers must be those that are destroyed.' a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "I am following you closely," I answered. and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was brandy and water within his reach. gone. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought be. "He is still with you, I presume?" and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in not within a twentieth part of the market price." but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" upon the shelf for the interim." that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some highroad, where all traces were lost. however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "To an end?" out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. carpenter." direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we that threaten you." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than disappearance of the bride.'" therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each business?" deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I never to learn it at all." shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he one of the states of the Union." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help asked. aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be his knees, staring into the fire. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his "It is his hat." my friend's incisive reasoning. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the towards the blaze. severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" just ask you whether you had heard it.' volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "In the cells." "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "'Yes, sir.' of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "Yesterday." "No more words. Get out!" away into the river." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy case-book, which he consulted. twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." families. Now for the facts. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "'I am sure that I do not know.' while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point roused himself from his reverie. "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "When did it break out?" there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even triumphant cloud from his cigarette. have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. highly," said Holmes. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "Nothing?" "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE felt?" Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "Why, what do you mean?" went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four