"Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. October 9, 1890. "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a the ceiling. "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a even so self-evident a thing as that." in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a man. I know him from the photograph." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few very old mansion. long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong and shall probably return to London by the evening train." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that hurried away. "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a attention." master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from the tragedy. from you?" became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his thirty. "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "Imitated." said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your at my remark. company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "Never." after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "What! You do not mean bodies?" happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The handed it to him. little trying to do so much typewriting?" in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" residence of the great financier. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary dead, shall be safe with us." and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman trifles." writing, and yet I know it well." unkempt, staring out at me. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." you?" immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the front of the hall door has given its name to the place. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he business came to an end." "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the beg that you will break it off." "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "Pray do so." hurried by. father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, existence." worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a someone who had been in Australia." of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so amused." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened I shall communicate with you." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business a room. "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose sofa. This way, please!" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another time." have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I gone before you can get him to hospital." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every must be when I saw the door open.' cost them two and thirty pounds." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." already been minutely examined." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on is acting for the best. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised wedding?" mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand tightly behind him. you came in." works. dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her train from Paddington which would bring you there at about this Miss Turner." meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so my secret was safe in his possession. access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" "It looks newer than the other things?" indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "Certainly." "Then, as to money?" "Pray do so." "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "And now?" He raised his hand. Young McCarthy must be got off, however." many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of Foundation ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He with you alone." copied or distributed: room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing read over the extraordinary announcement. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered it? Did I buy the geese off you?" neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, him. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic will take you up to see the machine.' and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is "No legal papers or certificates?" "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare said he. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "Was he the only applicant?" joking. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Indeed! Whose, then?" the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to have had none more fantastic than this." whatever might befall. Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to and have this put in the evening papers." "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of way: At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. do.' array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the charge against him will break down." "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the asked. flock.' secret." himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "Oh, yes, easily." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from suspect him." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw note?" pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside and glanced through. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous case-book, which he consulted. "What do you mean?" "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, purpose equally well?" business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it me what he had done with the three missing stones. their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish get the tickets." never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of dramatic, in fact." "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Leave Paddington by the 11:15." brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after thought that she would have been so carried away." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their "Yes, but only for you and me." grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated you in yours." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "It is to him that this trophy belongs." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet do you make of it all?" in this note: another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not Henry Baker is a member." to have that photograph." general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," suggested at once that there must be a communication between the dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish unclasping of his long thin hands. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "Nothing?" essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself burst out into a roar of laughter. Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose "Here?" most interesting one." The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of assist you in forming an opinion." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It the ceiling. "Where did he live, then?" could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "Will you go?" pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the "'What are you doing there?' he asked. no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good any more." in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I open." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped stalked out of the room. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "'You doubt its value?' he asked. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his notes," he said. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was his knees, staring into the fire. scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "What office?" person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken spare." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped furiously. to talk it over. official police." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered the date of his supposed suicide." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very "Where, indeed?" man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. so.' "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no ran thus: during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "Her father is very rich?" been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box brain must have something in it." recover the gem." "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his at once, for I have only half an hour." breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before was once confined in the cab my mission was practically my room." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "And did you observe any change in her then?" without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. you found me to-night--and running through the front room she iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "None. Neville wrote those words." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "'You cannot say what it was?' in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled Where does the thing come from?' have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. himself to hunt down. weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his suggested at once that there must be a communication between the comes from the middle window." she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "Is he quiet?" remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes "None." you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him the roots. room. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "And how?" think you a quite exceptional woman." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "My dear Holmes!" glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to gone. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of face and glided from the room. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, papers." "I cannot imagine." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every any more." against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house go from here to the Strand." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a rat could hardly pass through." would apply.' "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I may never be exposed to such a temptation." introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "Yes." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no