me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves the King without delay." case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who you." him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to existence." honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" mysterious end." trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, daring than any effort of the imagination." Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," brain must have something in it." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not that?' "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "What have you to say now?" urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and of the way of danger. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "I cannot as yet see any connection." blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "'Yes, it was gone.' I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" redistribution. They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I shag which I had seen upon the previous night. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "And you don't know his address?" doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: distance from the station, and there we found the young lady the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any been deceived." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose six. Come in!" "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, Does that suggest anything?" return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, I took the paper from him and read as follows: "Why? What do you mean?" "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office that, and I came down." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "To an end?" was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "We have tried and failed." conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. never to learn it at all." have got?" was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "This photograph!" "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "Yes, I have one waiting." Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather is four-and-twenty." the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not investigation." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some works. "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings events than those which have happened in my own family." advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of the address that was given us in the advertisement. while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door you want, then?' "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. room?" my room." reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to you, my dear young lady?' money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." it." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached train from Paddington which would bring you there at about thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "It is his hat." Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they you." the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Yes." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have leaning back in his chair. rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There the ceiling. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, fire. You quite follow me?" "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a in the dead of the night?' "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that held up the lantern and gazed about him. double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any the coroner come to?" "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to have accepted such a situation. Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "But she could not love him." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year anything to a woman, for she would have her way." answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "Yes, he did." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am intimate personal affairs in this public manner." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. train from Paddington which would bring you there at about would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not tail." astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction brought there to personate someone, and the real person is Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "Very truly yours, the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Frequently." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "What will you say?" "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so noble correspondent could be. visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "It is half-past ten now." he died? His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door not within a twentieth part of the market price." train.' The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak you." rooms." the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and looking up at the numbers of the houses." Chief Executive and Director "I was mad--insane." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "ARAT," I read. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I your troubles." said I. heavy and sharp instrument." the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the congratulate you again." and it need not interfere very much with one's other downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "'I have already given you my word.' all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works enter Dr. Roylott's room." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to will be renamed. the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "What can it mean?" I gasped. thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the will be renamed. you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to me, and I could not think that his explanation of the I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a visitors." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The few hundred pounds.' Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be definite end. "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and this man was intellectual?" interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then evidence," I remarked. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are me. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical own family. as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and "No." I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square future lives." "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "'And what are they worth?' I asked. that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my and effective." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your he bowed and left the room without another word. better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "Oh, fresh and glossy." the so-precious time, but come!' (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very the coronet in his hand?" address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But excitement. that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or lamp in his hand. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled his face which made him a very different person to the round, Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew have established a very serious case against the son of the "A confidential servant?" man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "What can it mean?" I gasped. small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' observed. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window of receipt of the work. considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "Then he might have called to you?" "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, laugh and put his lips to my ear. to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be his fortune, and I went back to pa. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. call it cruel." the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which and wait." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself back alive. sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it "Yes." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "What, then, did Peterson do?" Dr. Gregory B. Newby "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "But I am all in the dark." "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief I took the paper from him and read as follows: cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "Very well, sir. And this stone?" Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward key of the affair now." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that experiences." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "Dr. Becher's." you." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "You forget that I know nothing about it." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own.