usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the presented more singular features than that which was associated and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. future lives." "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured gone. my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise rose-bushes. can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely the warnings." forebodings. to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "And is that all?" firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do seem to you to be relevant or not." could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "And what did you see?" relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "Yes, all." chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his you came in." in the hope of finding them." difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "Then I am your man." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up second." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress "Yes, only one." "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "Pray do so." some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming presented which may be striking and bizarre without being grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some legal crime." company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are do you make of it all?" you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "'Ten to two.' I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being crackling voice. these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in villagers almost as much as their master. purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the should be taken.' "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "I see many objections to any such theory." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very excitement. "I am to be neutral?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was been." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." tear off another piece?' lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather Have you good authority for what you say?" ill-usage at the hands of fortune. should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn writing, and yet I know it well." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, the date of his supposed suicide." copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but "How about poison?" advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "You have carte blanche." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel salesman. becomes even more simple." which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a which we had just quitted. "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly we went to search for him, face downward in a little Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing case before our client came into the room." "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to through." because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had records." very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were started for the Temple to see my husband. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "And why?" "'No, I know no one in these parts.' got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But Lee, in the county of Kent." girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be without a word or a look. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that young Openshaw's." into her hand at the door and which lured her within their chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Yes, they were peculiar boots." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely call for protection in the marriage market, for the present kind enough to tell me what I should do." 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a Have you good authority for what you say?" "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "'What do you call purely nominal?' "It is true that I have been generally successful." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely train.' "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally meanly of me." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in showing my impatience. child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "But his left-handedness." "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little and that he would see to anything that turned up. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "That is it on the dressing-table." humiliation." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he "And from a noble client?" "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "Very truly yours, grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of the matter." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "I am sure." opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "ARAT," I read. afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper "It is possible." bearing upon the case." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring electronic works be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." recover the gem." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever of them has the shutters up.' more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones sufficient punishment." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the strode off upon his way. case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and gentleman's clothes. he. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of nonsense.' days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern This is what he says: Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." Does that suggest anything?" Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "I cannot as yet see any connection." the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "That is unusual in a young girl." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. get the tickets." attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of guilty parties." gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "But how could you guess what the motive was?" investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their chance." give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "Of what?" that there was nothing in it, after all." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "'As governess?' extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the the coroner come to?" "Absolutely none." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" conduct the inquiry." You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "And is that all?" have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, outsides of the windows. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do very morning of my second wedding." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, was feeling which was the fattest.' thought that she would have been so carried away." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office tell him that I know him to be innocent." "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a because she had spent so short a time in this country that she Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a there were so many in the whole country as were brought together merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "By no means." You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "Where did he live, then?" upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." thin legs towards the fire. "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and astonishment. done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do License. You must require such a user to return or "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Never." together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. the loss of it. Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "Was your sister dressed?" halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" following enigmatical notices: which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his your room." "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much minor matters until to-morrow." placed his cuttings. "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. arrangements." His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, where Mr. Fordham shows you.' did not hear it also.' word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he ill-usage at the hands of fortune. course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "Very. But will he see it?" This is what he says: lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey companion. "No, I am descending." green of the new foliage. investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "And when will you call?" "No sign of it?" must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on was a lad." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," you for a few hours?" maiden herself was most instructive." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and least a fellow-countryman. "I would give my fortune to have them back." "Which are?" and prosperity to your house. Good-night." they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some "Yes." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. better in every way that they should make their position a little loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes go--none." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. Sutherland. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it congratulate you again." are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "No legal papers or certificates?" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room be. There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson Eyford at 11:15.' material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he troubles have been weighing upon his mind. at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "'Which dealer's?' upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside certainly not very gracious." light and attacked it." here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "How on earth--" they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some