"Very truly yours, still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one served to weaken the effect. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "And you can do nothing until then?" they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And have accepted such a situation. eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "That sounds a little paradoxical." with you?" "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking your Highness to the police-station?" high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "If I can be of use." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "'Entirely.' about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for business." "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in His name is Francis Prosper." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then you?" "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I address. anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle have established a very serious case against the son of the Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, been with you?" certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were along the entire front of the house, with three long windows and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "And how have you succeeded?" she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to his wife has ceased to love him." confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' directors have had misgivings upon the subject." probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt you." make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been sooner or later she must fall a victim. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, and it need not interfere very much with one's other thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, you do it in twenty minutes!' Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Thank you. And your address?" there in twenty minutes." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "It is solved." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "Tired-looking or fresh?" into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well subject to the trademark license, especially commercial impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger remarked. companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell figure." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at horse could go." "What have you to say now?" scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my "It missed him, then?" Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away beg that you will break it off." presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to enough to aid us in our search." joking. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "'In my own bureau.' without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for drove away. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. "Not him." "Quite so." the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Perhaps I have." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have fish-monger and a tide-waiter." and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "The knees of his trousers." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "I don't say that. Perhaps." entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and undoubtedly my uncle's." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was breakfast and whispered something to her husband. the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his nights." wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." you found me to-night--and running through the front room she firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until charge against him will break down." Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' night.' said he. night.' said he. o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to within hail.' hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, his huge brown hands. King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There digesting their breakfasts at home." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little for securing the situation." "'I have already given you my word.' dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that events, Mr. Windibank!" "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "'Ten to two.' the stable lane now." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue you for a few hours?" into her hand at the door and which lured her within their King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for posted to-day." go from here to the Strand." any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves never will be, entirely cleared up. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "It was." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for subject to the trademark license, especially commercial well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "Yes, it was twisted." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should "Precisely so. But how--" "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. this unhappy family?" covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day locked. goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair weapon." "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. attention." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "Entirely." "We have tried and failed." the best of training." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan fishes. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "What then?" "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from you do it in twenty minutes!' more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think fled together." the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens at once, for I have only half an hour." "Pray be precise as to details," said he. my special province." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, and I shall be with you presently." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have it means?" "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most of a light. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in that, and I came down." office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "I see many objections to any such theory." The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the quickly through a disagreeable task. "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and developed." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences hour." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort four million human beings all jostling each other within the feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the becomes even more simple." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, at a side door. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "Was he the only applicant?" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," cup of tea. slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet said I. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. entirely lost his self-respect." "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "In which, sir?" springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "It was an hour's good drive." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your third from London." Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of my friend's incisive reasoning. pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "I would pay ten." mystery." point in the dark hollow of his hand. top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed him." business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "And is that all?" wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. made his money." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of shadow pass over his face as I spoke. I think that I could be of assistance to you." surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was that he will be back before evening." distance from the station, and there we found the young lady from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across persecution?" sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "You will not go there first?" framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "I am still in the dark." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in floor. "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "I think that I had better go, Holmes." kindly on the shoulder. "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was During two years I have had three consultations and one small "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." again on its way. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual useful material for showing traces. The double line a little this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "On your arm?" somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he should be taken.' quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "In heaven's name, what for?" and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "Yes, sir." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Oh, fresh and glossy." "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He strength in the others." pressing in one house as in another. well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of and I shall be with you presently." chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "It is possible." said he. this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little ventilator." "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "I would give my fortune to have them back." works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "Come in!" said he. known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Yes." "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is chair. McCarthy." is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no everything which you would wish to know." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is married her." "I cannot imagine." "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "I cannot tell." Chief Executive and Director refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "On Monday." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client himself to tell his story. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such brain must have something in it." "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather