"The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he it." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all and the whole place is in a blaze." "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me charge against him will break down." said I. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "My photograph." fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, easy-going way." through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten to-night?' of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "'There is a drive, then?' of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "A confidential servant?" Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to his grey eyes. Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and upon a handsome competence. in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "No, my brougham is waiting." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but the roots. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son is now desirous of getting those letters back." walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad read it out to me." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then signal between you and your father? "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time was already answered. "Yes." "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. in my life." might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an said he. possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian gone. dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in not fit the lock." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and what these perils are?" When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the your sleep?' Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive appeared upon the scene." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate congratulate you again." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "He said too much." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Then I am your man." a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "He is dead," cried several voices. play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' your co-operation." certainly do as you advise." gentleman's clothes. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But pity, because in other respects you would really have done very their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so there has been an enclosure here!" the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some to change my dress. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. congenial hunt. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel McCarthy's innocence. him nearly every evening." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "To an end?" met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now had formerly been in part my own. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and that I am arrested." Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." there was no need for father to know." peculiar to him. conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "No?" people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "One?" had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers his eyes and forehead. sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her and capable of preserving a secret.' "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed think that any burglar could have done. round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and outside. did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "A call for help, you thought?" Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there companion. asked with his eyes open. to that open window." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "Bought." corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "It goes to the housekeeper's room." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "Then he might have called to you?" like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that "Stolen, then." and it need not interfere very much with one's other thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so own family. conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That even so self-evident a thing as that." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you least a fellow-countryman. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "'Where to?' from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "I beg pardon." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I to Leatherhead. What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. how narrow had been my escape. "Certainly." be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't the bottom.' strength." backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, foot. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "Why? What do you mean?" and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Thank you. And your address?" I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "None." right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "I have come for advice." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "It is very kind of you." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There the Red-headed League." "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "There are none." bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "You horrify me!" defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Then I am your man." compunction about shooting them down." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been the south-west, I see." the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "My Mary? Impossible!" Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation again, where I was soon asleep. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the 'please.'" King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which approach us with offers to donate. "VIOLET HUNTER." you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my posted to-day." until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary helping a boy to put up the shutters. the station." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite are windows in it, of course?" Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "No." without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. straightened it out again. "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six of the way of danger. "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in the night.' notes," he said. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." geese which you supplied to the Alpha." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the third from London." where Mr. Fordham shows you.' to where he stood hid behind the curtain. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, even so self-evident a thing as that." you want, then?' for the market.' woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where things are very often connected not with the larger but with the have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness Pool. "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. said he, "my real name is James Ryder." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little Have you good authority for what you say?" Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had all?" "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to brain must have something in it." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public here." "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt together. I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for hereditary King of Bohemia." seem to you to be relevant or not." "The Coroner: What do you mean? hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that "Oh, yes, easily." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method strength in the others." "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "You horrify me!" "I have solved it." a suggestive one." for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point place of silver." heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. clanging. "The landlord of the Alpha." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay my room." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed case before our client came into the room." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his not, dad?" she asked. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are of a light. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned bachelor.' Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by he bowed and left the room without another word. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down the window, rose as we entered. across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "What will you do, then?" "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "It is no ordinary one." "Then how many are there?" "But I have heard all that you have heard." "Where, then, is my wife?" dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to the so-precious time, but come!' "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the drove away. breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, furiously. shaken than I had ever seen him. and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the October 9, 1890. of Fenchurch Street." the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "I cannot as yet see any connection." "Dark enough and sinister enough." greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "Game for a morning drive?" ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "You have it, sir, just as it happened." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in What do you deduce from it?" "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself all-comprehensive glances. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my sit on the left-hand side of the driver." lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "But she could not love him." listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he you found me to-night--and running through the front room she into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have important." of campaign. this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "'And the work?' With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I said he at last.