stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. been anything against him. He had for years been known as a "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no your Highness to the police-station?" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for to tell." these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an in his hands." and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink skylight. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was one of them." noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. better in every way that they should make their position a little any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, believe that I should never have any practice at all. will not take me long to tell. "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I laugh and put his lips to my ear. accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "My last client of the sort was a king." "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, now. It seems that there had been some informality about their deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be absolutely follow my advice in every respect." detained." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of trying to your nerves." transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found was not a bird to be seen there. "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "It is no ordinary one." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." populous neighbourhood." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, already been minutely examined." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come will he say when he returns?" firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "Could he throw no light?" "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. on in his house." beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in My friend smiled. "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending morning." although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, shag which I had seen upon the previous night. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "By no means." and put his glass in his pocket. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you have accepted such a situation. hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came page at http://pglaf.org de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "She walked into the breakfast-room." "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he said he. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "I shall be delighted." at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to about. dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. the bottom.' certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know our word." I was concerned in it." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the during which he might have communicated with his friend the We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps of." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "The vanishing of the lady." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak even of instruction." "The murder was done with it." Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "'Is purely nominal.' warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the your billet.' other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" my little problems." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight have had none more fantastic than this." the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. you in yours." "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest have accepted such a situation. the driver. "Tired-looking or fresh?" with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to memory. "It is no ordinary one." the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare "I have my revolver," said I. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "Yes, sir." Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, lost his Christmas dinner." "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the their singular warning or token before them when starting upon him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "No, but the enclosure is." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a if only as a check to my own memory." return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, about. "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of words came to my lips. "It is to him that this trophy belongs." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of secret." eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was stepfather?" "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "She will not sell." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable at home. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "'How far from the body?' His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "I was afraid that you were engaged." "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of weary and pale-looking. In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of that I may have something better before very many minutes are "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for instincts rose up against that laugh. Eyford." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, right! Sit down and let us talk it over." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a sooner or later she must fall a victim. business in the City. She little knew what. "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked up this clue while it is still hot." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I in. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right anything to do with the matter?" betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are in my life." to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley would apply.' any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of ashen face. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises for the market.' "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." affection." "Certainly, madam." observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." his face. of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with once more for Briony Lodge. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "Look there!" said he. "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "What! a murderous attack?" something of him before." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, "It is to him that this trophy belongs." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the of your young ladies.' my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my foot. successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "I guessed as much." "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six and effective." fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that vague figure huddled up in the darkness. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty such attractions and accomplishments?' product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great relation between them, and what the object of his repeated as he folded up the epistle. be. bird I ate is country bred." I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "Was she in good spirits?" "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" with her." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "'Ample.' dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "Then you may entirely rely on me." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "'Why that?' I asks. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "Imitated." good for you to do.' "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the Munro.' prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "What, then, did Peterson do?" - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have maiden herself was most instructive." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "Which are?" that I may have something better before very many minutes are being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by gone. "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of burst into a hearty fit of laughter. "Where, indeed?" "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "Of what day?" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the with some details as to your case." anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your new acquaintance to Baker Street.