specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in Farm upon the left." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in him!" have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you bare slabs of marble. "I am sure." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Was he the only applicant?" the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of again before evening." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the already referred to. face and glided from the room. especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you in the port of London." "She will not sell." it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was once more for Briony Lodge. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the Pope's Court. fled together." the matter?" seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the foot. "What office?" child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "Why? What do you mean?" to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the she to prove their authenticity?" "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and DAMAGE. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the breakfast." the dangers which encompass me." "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other could not have written that. It is the German who is so "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," had died away into the silence from which it rose. London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which neither fascinating nor artistic." "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine enough to aid us in our search." considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. of the way of danger. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and other means.' much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," Leadenhall Street--and--" into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "'Most admirably.' "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been the ceiling. "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was situation." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number throat." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, I took the paper from him and read as follows: own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "I say it is." his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to "A confidential servant?" pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "Where, indeed?" little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our examine." "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at felt the room to be a little close.' occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him throat." trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "In what way?" asked Holmes. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "But not more so than I to find you." written, and locked the door of the office after me. One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, the matter?" protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, that, and I came down." "And help." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "In San Francisco, a year ago." return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and of receipt of the work. paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with union?" hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an as he folded up the epistle. dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were awkward doing business with an alias." "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a that I am arrested." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced desk. and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not drawing your inferences." ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence "In heaven's name, what for?" my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, to where he stood hid behind the curtain. invisible to me," I remarked. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly that, and I came down." at a side door. and I shall be with you presently." "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. clanging. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a o'clock is it?" beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with of a light. teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "'Where to?' "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "Was she in good spirits?" as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were I nodded to show that I had heard. civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "He might." "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons Literary Archive Foundation "That is easily got." "None." "To an end?" "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, opened the door, and slipped through. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "None. Neville wrote those words." it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless tapping his fingers upon the table. "It's nothing of the kind." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is 'please.'" It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "Precisely so. But how--" the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." could go. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away had this final quarrel? had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "'You doubt its value?' he asked. state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "Certainly, madam." given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the to-morrow." my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "And from a noble client?" "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." But Holmes shook his head gravely. room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and furiously. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am we went to search for him, face downward in a little "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." along the entire front of the house, with three long windows at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "'Yes, sir.' buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were them?" the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "And sit in the dark?" in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this against a man in the prime of life?" age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you pity, because in other respects you would really have done very dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "Never." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband gone. tell him that I know him to be innocent." passage and a tap at the door. the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the was already answered. before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "I shall most certainly do so." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," entirely lost his self-respect." analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. developed." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "I don't say that. Perhaps." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "No, I am descending." stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "But how?" "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, present." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' too. "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "I never have." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I direction." I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "That is not always so easy." clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our tail." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of "Where, then?" maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "And you thought he was pulled back?" "What can it mean?" I gasped. he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." man. I know him from the photograph." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet for securing the situation." "What office?" derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either indeed happy." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the like that before?" with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those of his shoulders. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he wife's character?" colonel looking down at me. it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "I see no marks." which our visitor detailed to us. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "Was he the only applicant?" His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "No sign of it?" "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "Holmes, the busybody!" gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "How did that help you?" "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little less than 26s. 4d. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed washing it down with a long draught of water. never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "What then?" "Proceed, then." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his