blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to just ask you whether you had heard it.' "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have could go. hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties in darkness. "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked manager. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what the tragedy. about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" that you can jump it.' a suggestive one." "The best possible." the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "And why?" "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I the child." occurred." clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as will be renamed. "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, said he. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "'And the work?' Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. take the flies, but not before." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad redistribution. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call then?" "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest security.' Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "Why serious?" "No, thank goodness, she did not." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major to a more successful conclusion." "But what will you do?" lids now and glanced across at his visitor. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "Upon what point?" "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will in him." and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are happened." laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "He might." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he II. afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was any little problem which you may submit to me." often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King round with crates and massive boxes. "A greater distance to travel." digesting their breakfasts at home." weapon." have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon was shining brightly. resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the Mary, has deserted me." offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "He is still with you, I presume?" directors, with the result that you have seen." concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "I cannot tell." should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy have an American origin." other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with an introduction to him?" heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "No good news?" his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying friend's singular character. cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could of the way of danger. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a observed. "Your presence might be invaluable." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." that threaten you." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "What shall I do?" "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would this unhappy family?" I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, what do you think they found in the pockets?" found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "In answer to an advertisement." ourselves in the office." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "You are certainly joking, Holmes." Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "ARAT," I read. penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. it. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there sofa. This way, please!" result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the "What is it?" the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of once more to my work. most interesting one." "Nothing." which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the "Have you her photograph?" down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "Yes, from Horsham." liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. cheerful." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the fasten all the windows?" drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is to-night." completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "Stolen." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey that I may have something better before very many minutes are "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It the very morning of the wedding." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the "What is it?" the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the appeared upon the scene." with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite sake, don't!" his grey eyes. "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "How long did she speak to this Alice?" left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "None." I leave." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass enter into my head. increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet the salesman. refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and invisible to me," I remarked. Edgeware Road. "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Which are?" "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet becomes even more simple." at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "'No, I know no one in these parts.' pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "My stepfather's business papers." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "No." "Oh, yes, easily." "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "Murdered?" along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "No." "Not in a good cause." could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the hands. across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of thin legs towards the fire. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. "I will, Miss Turner." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum results." Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether mysterious end." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and in. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "Now, then, what's the last entry?" Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. his face which made him a very different person to the round, My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "My last client of the sort was a king." "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "I assure you that I am in your hands." he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point with the outside air!" of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "Were they all fastened this morning?" his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the in the port of London." bearing upon the case." have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "Where, then, is my wife?" be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "It must be recovered." Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" guilty one." lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "Yes." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it some water from a caraffe. that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless were new raised from a basin. some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "Ten will be early enough." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I lips." observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "But the mystery?" The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. enter Dr. Roylott's room." "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows figure." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "And leave your case unfinished?" even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced my little problems." of the efforts of the United States government and of the better brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and photograph?" "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which hardly wander." my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." do.' "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" the devil!" of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. delighted to hear it," he said. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have furiously. "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. young Openshaw's." either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "And your mother is alive?" house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." main points of my analysis." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in man. I know him from the photograph." Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found the warnings." memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this suggested at once that there must be a communication between the bedroom door." bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "Pray do so." "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' returning from some small jollification and was making his way "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of your equipment. Mrs. Toller serenely. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "My dear Holmes!" body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some happened." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "But not more so than I to find you." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. me where it went to?" the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent roused himself from his reverie. step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you up this clue while it is still hot." is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of fashion which was peculiar to him. "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the was already answered. "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the in the dead of the night?' against a man in the prime of life?" naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "Stolen." again on its way. down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "Yesterday." product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after such attractions and accomplishments?' likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down six. Come in!" and the whole place is in a blaze." "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father an introduction to him?" the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "'I have already given you my word.' their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility matters immensely." now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and held up the lantern and gazed about him. yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "I cannot say that I have." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a father's young wife. theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. father's young wife. is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should