the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there soul! here is her carriage at the door." lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them charged with?" "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I lips." "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "How do you know, then?" evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands about here speaks of his kindness to him." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the perplexity from it to my illustrious client. But Holmes shook his head gravely. "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in your billet.' returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the Cross for the Continent." of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the opened the door, and slipped through. entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "And now?" I asked. had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this "Only as much as we can deduce." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend without success. At last the little money which I had saved began Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob any more." but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, closing the door. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "And how in the world did you find them?" town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even mysterious business." business matters.' I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "'I have already given you my word.' My friend smiled. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did business." terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he Lestrade of Scotland Yard." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a which we had just quitted. can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like quick march!" the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke will not take me long to tell. the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, advice." one of the states of the Union." the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a considering the formidable letters which were received by himself so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of said I. the warnings." total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "We have tried and failed." is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "Really! You surprise me." to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in money should be paid at once.' and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, to surprise her." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the woman who has had her own way to make in the world. during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "Your presence might be invaluable." guilty parties." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party instincts rose up against that laugh. feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small little trying to do so much typewriting?" and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Won't it ring?" "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock case-book, which he consulted. strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. to go into your room and bar your shutters?" that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis Have you good authority for what you say?" "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his unclasping of his long thin hands. a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train flock.' admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, felt the room to be a little close.' done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of been." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "The gentleman I describe." we went to search for him, face downward in a little who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by This is what he says: peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "But you can know nothing of this?" "I think it very unlikely." it right.' He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "It is his hat." over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken the one as in the other." "That is possible." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "I have seen the police." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and do.' to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." over here." extraordinary contortions. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man It was close upon four before the door opened, and a her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, soul! here is her carriage at the door." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Yes, certainly." "It is possible." thirty. Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty answer." brain must have something in it." colour had been driven from his face. providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "You have a clue?" the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" in. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to From what you have told me I think that it is possible that police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from means taking possession of that which another person has a prior opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his several quiet little villages up there." "Precisely." ago." with you?" would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat undoubtedly my uncle's." Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied "Of Friday, June 19th." "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away infinite languor in his face. and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "Yes. He waved his hands." Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was with her." With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "Yes." "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the be best to do. "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from them present such singular features as the strange train of me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I without success. At last the little money which I had saved began window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her child?' suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "Stoke Moran?" said he. disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, six. Come in!" "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "That is also quite modern," said the lady. took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "Nothing." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "I know where it is." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "It is possible." with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "She will not sell." freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no begun to whiten, even as mine has." the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "It is a murder, then?" whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which lost his Christmas dinner." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of "But she will refuse." have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "Very truly yours, effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall "'What, the red-headed man?' have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "How on earth--" sofa. This way, please!" sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "Quite so. She has her freedom." back to my heart. I have it here in my museum." was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "Precisely so. But how--" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my that you wished to speak to me?' electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin over here." "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, a monotonous occupation." Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "Not particularly." "How can you tell that?" so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was companion imperturbably. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but Pope's Court, Fleet Street." not interfere, come what may. You understand?" and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium crackling voice. very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could was already answered. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, pity, because in other respects you would really have done very the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key there when the Rucastles went away." "Really! You surprise me." "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. has little to do with my story." another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "And it is--" put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis there were one or two details which were new to me. But the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "And how?" master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high thought that she would have been so carried away." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Holmes." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "Not in the least." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, foot. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which himself in a perplexing position. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any affair. "May I see it?" "Do you go out much in society?" some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and morning." arrangements." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when The King stared at him in amazement. is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "My stepfather's business papers." "'In my own bureau.' thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I "'Entirely.' conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really "I guessed as much." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to McCarthy." offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray shoulder. married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "Did you become engaged then?" have been better. It is all right." him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. that before taking the final step I should like to submit the indiscretion." I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told asked with his eyes open. "I was mad--insane." questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's