"The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" get the tickets." over here." the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed will be renamed. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the affection." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "You'll never persuade me to believe that." "And I say east," said my patient. for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. been." "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "And your father? Did you tell him?" her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could coroner's jury." morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a is worth.' recover the gem." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was think you a quite exceptional woman." read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. know what is wrong with it.' with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, photograph a cabinet?" to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I to-night's adventure." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. highly," said Holmes. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to never to learn it at all." chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Thank you. And your address?" ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "I answered that I had not. worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a Sutherland. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. six. Come in!" had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, even so self-evident a thing as that." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "Upon what point?" of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular that I can to serve you." "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion II. "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "Have you it here?" never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "But she will refuse." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than His name is Francis Prosper." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and have established a very serious case against the son of the unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking passage and a tap at the door. will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how were wasted." swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "Eh? What was that?" attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was on in his house." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue bearing upon the case." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of a good hundred miles off by now." of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his seven miles from Eyford Station.' whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "Ten will be early enough." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "And I to find an enemy." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about any." front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "Very murderous indeed." "Well." freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "Then I shall certainly come." "No sign of it?" that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, open." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "'Which dealer's?' called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "Yes, they were peculiar boots." soul! here is her carriage at the door." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his despair." no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is Project Gutenberg-tm works. Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the to-night?' Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." there has been an enclosure here!" shoulder; "he's all right." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "You think so, too?" previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you nonsense.' "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "Never." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the It was close upon four before the door opened, and a little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to Street. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "What do you make of that, Watson?" desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it "Really! You surprise me." status with the IRS. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not disappearance of these gems?" delirious. "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no murdered man." night.' said he. their singular warning or token before them when starting upon he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress as he folded up the epistle. doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no passage and a tap at the door. all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right brandy and water within his reach. perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction depend upon your compliance." considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it investigation." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in the room while you explain this matter?" I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, felt the room to be a little close.' outside." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "Do you go out much in society?" be best to do. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement most important business. It is probable that he will be away all a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not was the fact that his father should, according to his account, yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, trifles." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. as yours." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out notes," he said. James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "A call for help, you thought?" between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "A confidential servant?" "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" affair. events than those which have happened in my own family." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of maid will bring up your coffee." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The most interesting one." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "It missed him, then?" of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the cigars in their mouths. "Only as much as we can deduce." "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked not interfere, come what may. You understand?" access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall washing it down with a long draught of water. will find little credit to be gained out of this case." business." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round go--none." begun to whiten, even as mine has." and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing him!" Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to I held the little printed slip to the light. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have returning from some small jollification and was making his way say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her wedding?" Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three said he. companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than cost them two and thirty pounds." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "Awake, Watson?" he asked. son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door legal crime." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "He said too much." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have pound a week." dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should him!" suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Yes, they were peculiar boots." the side-table." "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but in this note: with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. make me his representative both with the servants and with the turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after the little opening for the ventilator is." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check of receipt of the work. But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing the little opening for the ventilator is." promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "Yes, it would be as well." "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he it. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post the station." "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, spark where all is dark to me." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just His smile broadened. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "No, but the enclosure is." "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "Precisely so. But how--" lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the situation." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with noble correspondent could be. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "No." centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "No more words. Get out!" and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No But Holmes shook his head gravely. "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's way in." I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of and the colonel ushered me in. up this clue while it is still hot." housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this them?" bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any bore every mark of being an average commonplace British Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said Pool. pierced for earrings?" "He is still with you, I presume?" Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper opened a pocket-book and took out a note. absorbing." "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks.