however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible address. twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and morning." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I Pope's Court, Fleet Street." then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was already been minutely examined." article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring the devil!" you give your casting vote to?" shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough one else, I think." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that train.' upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. during which he might have communicated with his friend the into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one was a loud and authoritative tap. statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the behind me. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "Where, indeed?" donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a case-book, which he consulted. have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that before the coroner and the police-court." where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself feature." the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "None." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Then the page we have seen--" "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." copied or distributed: places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a which was all perfectly true. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Do you know him?" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "How do you know, then?" fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means light and attacked it." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate I shall continue with my miserable story. "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter know what is wrong with it.' there has been an enclosure here!" "Then you may entirely rely on me." these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between had no one to advise her at such a crisis." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child anything to do with the matter?" the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of to have been novel and of interest." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose points in connection with it which never have been, and probably from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "You are hungry," I remarked. him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a of Fenchurch Street." thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "And you don't know his address?" points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "I will try. What is it?" relief. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never with you?" address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." could gather together that I was able to avert another public of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the whether it answered to the description of any of their before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "Was your sister dressed?" to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be 1.F. be there in time for your coming." "'What are you doing there?' he asked. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. "I guessed as much." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "Dark enough and sinister enough." "My Mary? Impossible!" reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen our word." cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of one else, I think." you do it in twenty minutes!' given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no in one or two places in England?' "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the as he remarks, very much against the son." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of have been better. It is all right." was shining brightly. The note was undated, and without either signature or address. seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a "And the cigar-holder?" so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at "Yes, only one." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "Indeed! Whose, then?" "But I am all in the dark." "The vanishing of the lady." know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, and the colonel ushered me in. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile late!' brandy and water within his reach. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of meant." back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of green of the new foliage. life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the you want, then?' Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a some water from a caraffe. being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of invisible to me," I remarked. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest stepfather?" weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send in him." Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "And you can do nothing until then?" gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The disturbance in my wife." Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended congratulate you again." the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "Perhaps we may make them less so." each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "It was a confession," I ejaculated. highroad, where all traces were lost. with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" arrested. You then--" three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." them?" I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges you." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. been deceived." of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he roused himself from his reverie. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "'It is locked up,' I answered. waste of energy." money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but over with notes and figures. wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent I took the paper from him and read as follows: all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" against a man in the prime of life?" the inquest, and which are worth considering." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "Is he quiet?" middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and shaken than I had ever seen him. "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "How did that help you?" smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose whereabouts. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each "It is a murder, then?" Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself shoulder. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of indiscretion." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, criminal. We have already had experience of such." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." the address that was given us in the advertisement. note?" to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "And why?" find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up lost nothing by them." said he. "The rest you will leave in our hands." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "What of the rat, then?" returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "I see no marks." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we "No bad?" baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the vault. suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "You have but to name it." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "'Yes.' grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "Yes." highroad, where all traces were lost. "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have thin legs towards the fire. "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become questioning and rather startled gaze. of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a in. understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as useful material for showing traces. The double line a little foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De fear." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can here and I will read it to you: exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" child?' the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "It may not come to that," said Holmes. dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat this poor creature." events than those which have happened in my own family." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he 11:15.' "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my very peculiar words of the dying woman?" fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came shall use the carriage to-night." "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything subject to the trademark license, especially commercial that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his discontent upon his features. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "And leave your case unfinished?" to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "What then?" if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "Well?" William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "Entirely." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, if she died from some sudden fright." my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "And I to find an enemy." yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "But his lameness?" voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself you in your example." very old mansion. dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of key of the affair now." confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, daring than any effort of the imagination."