vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, Miss Holder?" preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if before, for it was considerably after midnight. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "Your sister is dead, then?" customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated nonsense.' understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. redistribution. would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a chair. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was should be so warm over such a trifle." astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "Married! When?" safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "Well." to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the Have you good authority for what you say?" before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "'No, I know no one in these parts.' forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "She showed me, as I told you she would." for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot papers." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "No, thank goodness, she did not." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich second window is the one that I jumped from." takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were if she died from some sudden fright." have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A during the last few years, and there are many noble families to his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Eh? What was that?" I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "It missed him, then?" inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the just called myself is not exactly my own." was the fact that his father should, according to his account, possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "'Certainly not.' just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "This photograph!" guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of how narrow had been my escape. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "No, but the enclosure is." colour had been driven from his face. Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from particular state visit http://pglaf.org occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "Yes, there are nearly always some there." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and and the church but not where the lady lived." gigantic client. "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must will he say when he returns?" think you a quite exceptional woman." him to go away.' "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "But we can't all be." but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." be there in time for your coming." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' locked. "Certainly." "What of the rat, then?" hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ four million human beings all jostling each other within the came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then disappearance of the bride.'" "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "That is unusual in a young girl." 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification go back?" air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "How did you deduce the select?" Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the not as remarkable as your advertisement." have I gained?" no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." it means?" brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in photograph?" pound a week." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. served to weaken the effect. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "Absolutely?" clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "I shall be delighted." affection." to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" see a sister of mine apply for." "I have seen the police." Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "Proceed, then." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in article?" but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud despaired of." introspective fashion. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "My dear Holmes!" Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, forehead. Henry Baker is a member." "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about are, I think, all that we need." enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the father's place of business?" anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." yards of it?' "What then?" course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Come in!" said he. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "I have come for advice." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "So I have heard." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "But his left-handedness." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her success. petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. highroad, where all traces were lost. lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin walking." which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as the ceiling. years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could here." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Yes, he did." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was locked." shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so that?' be there in time for your coming." a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered vague figure huddled up in the darkness. too. having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at events than those which have happened in my own family." by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the "Ha! you find it so?" might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "So I have heard." The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took definite end. into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. again before evening." presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not undoubtedly my uncle's." gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an and glanced through. charged with?" "You have but to name it." "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "In answer to an advertisement." treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are back into the street. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, with the outside air!" "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural happened." something of him before." his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for him to go away.' "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in before, for it was considerably after midnight. feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "And Irene Adler?" thirty. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport business." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting was feeling which was the fattest.' corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly excitement. of receipt of the work. "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor is four-and-twenty." "He slept on the premises." INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out most interesting one." when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "Ah!" provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Dark enough and sinister enough." "'What are you doing there?' he asked. again before evening." "I don't believe it." long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles were wasted." "There are none." same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even have established a very serious case against the son of the contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and never to learn it at all." the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from client, rising. "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. lids now and glanced across at his visitor. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since might help us?" "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "There are none." "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, like gravel from a pit.' husband's writing, madam." "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the orange pips. the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such them?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from and put his glass in his pocket. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "My stepfather's business papers." a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of the window, rose as we entered. of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a occurred." went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." electronic works "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our Holmes' thin, eager face. and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an you for a few hours?" them?" man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last this case, Watson, if there is nothing else."