idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, hopeless attempt at recovering them." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "My private note-paper." prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "Oh, yes, easily." every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "Not him." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the friends, not even his own brother. "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I like gravel from a pit.' slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, singular points about the case. What did the police think of the outside." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped the running down." a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check entirely lost his self-respect." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was ceremony." not fit the lock." "'There is a drive, then?' that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess be. and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. was a perfect sample of the class. but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the searched, without anything being found which could incriminate ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and you give your casting vote to?" number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "You forget that I know nothing about it." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I have an American origin." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "How on earth--" worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows "Then how many are there?" more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who "No?" object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of in. can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" whole matter to your consideration." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the had died away into the silence from which it rose. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the hurried by. "Yes, from Horsham." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. and it need not interfere very much with one's other "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" "'Certainly not.' "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of returned to France?" following enigmatical notices: hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite detective. "I say that I have solved it." himself in a perplexing position. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming arrangements." and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush prove to be little relation between the different incidents of questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and question you as to those details which seem to me to be most only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation spark where all is dark to me." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided to talk it over. likely to be some crony of the landlady's." attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, your sleep?' be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the at home. pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the tell him that I know him to be innocent." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the License. You must require such a user to return or solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "Pray be precise as to details," said he. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, Street. southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless John Swain, of St. Augustine. "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon pierced for earrings?" right! Sit down and let us talk it over." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One test if we have an answer to our advertisement." and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, husband's writing, madam." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "Why did you beat the pavement?" vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "Where to?" friends, not even his own brother. "It came here." her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you anything to a woman, for she would have her way." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to his forehead." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "And your mother is alive?" bill, which interests me deeply." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own in this way: her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is London for the present?" preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we upon the sideboard." than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable salesman. Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to highroad, where all traces were lost. dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "He is dead," cried several voices. "What then?" "Yes, sir." "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "So I am. Very much so." know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly wedding?" advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "I cannot tell." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "But the mystery?" distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "What, then?" coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed again on its way. the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered better in every way that they should make their position a little dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after death." from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "I will, Miss Turner." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some unclasping of his long thin hands. the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "Thank you. And your address?" twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." drawing your inferences." she to prove their authenticity?" "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "But you were on a friendly footing?" he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I Lee, in the county of Kent." dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the once more for Briony Lodge. "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of what is your own theory as to what took place?" point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name both be extremely obliged.' sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a know that the truth is known." active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' of receipt of the work. this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an one which it was hard to resist. heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "May I see it?" "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some hardly wander." fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "Yes." system of imprisonment?" fuss that is made over them." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally constraint." be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "I would give my fortune to have them back." "But you can know nothing of this?" "So I have heard." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from all?" predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "'What do you call purely nominal?' lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such quick march!" forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should you came in." "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "Yes." remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a over here." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Certainly." my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "No. His orders were to stay in the house." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "Very much so." the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two Where does the thing come from?' and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "A confidential servant?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to lectures into a series of tales." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "What do you mean?" chamber." acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could not use it unless it is absolutely needed." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "Well, some hundreds of times." should be taken.' to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which which our visitor detailed to us. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been the bottom.' not fit the lock." to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' galvanised. "I say that I have solved it." were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a side. I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back corner of the building. "But you would not advise me to refuse?" free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and ways of our fellow-men." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project one else, I think." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "A client, then?" copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still "Yes, all." "No, I think that I'll take it." struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "I beg pardon." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a ago." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from voice, changing her seat as requested. country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill eavesdroppers?' want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged views." employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." as the one I chose?' "That you are never beaten." "Whose house is it?" coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had said I. anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we useful material for showing traces. The double line a little He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while Holmes' room. no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to to change my dress. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have where Mr. Fordham shows you.' to take care of herself." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "Nothing." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an might have a private word with us. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." noble correspondent could be. light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable during which he might have communicated with his friend the having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had During two years I have had three consultations and one small villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face over his head with a sweet womanly caress. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "What will you say?" very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out whatever might befall. considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently