other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. to some other building. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That of it with the greatest attention. "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and a good hundred miles off by now." sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light I shall communicate with you." iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "That is also quite modern," said the lady. know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him have established a very serious case against the son of the gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you lamp. of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "Yes. He waved his hands." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My confronted him. routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that feature." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "On Monday." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear away into the river." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting me. at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "'And what salary do you ask?' horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An your co-operation." that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the "She told me to ask you." thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "I have seen the police." how narrow had been my escape. Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. tear off another piece?' that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "I don't say that. Perhaps." for securing the situation." conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no this remarkable episode. crime." important." Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "My stepfather's business papers." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." acted in my house last night?" "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" believe that I should never have any practice at all. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "The vanishing of the lady." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade Chief Executive and Director "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "One of the highest in England." civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was front of me. "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "I will get her to show me." constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the believe that I should never have any practice at all. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg you?" is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "Yes." morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly enter into my head. "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "How about poison?" in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." window when the police appeared." "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "On your arm?" said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "Certainly." what do you think they found in the pockets?" civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee someone who had been in Australia." "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which round and wave him away like that.' when you have done it." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off little trying to do so much typewriting?" knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be me." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to success. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second the matter." "The rest you will leave in our hands." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Oh, the cause is excellent!" have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler This is what he says: "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own that he has suffered." about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air over part of the map. "What do you read?" and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots fear." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. written, and locked the door of the office after me. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the again before evening." see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt events, Mr. Windibank!" respectable self." "On the contrary, this is the right side." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, crowd. the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between went to the Alpha were town bred." money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and question. "By train from Waterloo." "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. I nodded to show that I had heard. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "Who by?" rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to someone who had been in Australia." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "The murder was done with it." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. bare slabs of marble. "What?" "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will asked. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "It was an hour's good drive." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the Eyford at 11:15.' Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and nothing of it?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "No, I had a dozen." "By no means." and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the "And for present expenses?" to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much quick march!" examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, have established a very serious case against the son of the hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "'I am sure if I had known--' papers on the sundial.'" also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the these bleak autumnal evenings." some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. see a sister of mine apply for." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making with you?" made his money." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried yards of it?' of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped felt?" unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man Doctor, of the paper and the date." refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella bore every mark of being an average commonplace British but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "'You cannot say what it was?' photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the information in his hands the value of which he did not himself works. his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly to miss it." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I beyond words. cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did himself to hunt down. The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said London for the present?" pressing in one house as in another. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is hurried away. "This concluded the examination of the witness." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no Holmes." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There as he folded up the epistle. upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his upon the sideboard." "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and and laid it on the table. Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of your own bird, so if you wish--" hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this the bottom.' he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "This concluded the examination of the witness." "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a gigantic client. game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "Could he throw no light?" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" so far?" "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion been shamefully used." gentleman's clothes. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the the bed, and you in that chair." the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "You have compromised yourself seriously." is acting for the best. jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. conduct the inquiry." and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it miles off. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine away to you." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot details should find their way into the papers. Inspector his grey eyes. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my look dissatisfied." gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the strode off upon his way. visitors." folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I companion. is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of felt the room to be a little close.' When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, the devil!" "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our I approached. Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle orange pips. and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on one's self under obligations.' little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "Married! When?" are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very of note-paper. It read in this fashion: the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "I see no marks." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head go--none." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, ready to-morrow?' "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "I have seen the police." like gravel from a pit.' coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that absorbing." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of seen the man in the road." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he to-night?' much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I people don't know." habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." "'As governess?' three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" bill, which interests me deeply." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! village inn over there?" "Ah!" my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the to-morrow." deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California burst out into a roar of laughter. of." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming which are rolled in Rotterdam." "Which surely he restored to their owner?" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. new acquaintance to Baker Street. have accepted such a situation. from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the the tragedy. of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a straighten it?" have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "Did you observe the colour?" seven miles from Eyford Station.' it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "What do you make of that, Watson?" "Ten will be early enough." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he had no one to advise her at such a crisis." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt already referred to. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know this poor creature." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work