that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it society." mysterious business." his grey eyes. "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a the dangers which encompass me." "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave empty. was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I American. Then who could this American be, and why should he music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. which it had come upon my father." brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite discontent upon his features. eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe families. Now for the facts. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "Yes, they were peculiar boots." made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. been able to understand it, in a very few words. disappearance of these gems?" "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not she used." my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "I am following you closely," I answered. studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." giving me time to thank him. 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been of the way of danger. back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "Never." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "Quite so." client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "I am following you closely," I answered. thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a she slowly sank and died without having recovered her size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Where did you address your letters, then?" grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his The King stared at him in amazement. "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then once more. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "I will try. What is it?" I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an woman." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip matter." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it details." "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "Then what has happened to him?" "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "And it is--" spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between this Miss Turner." though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to recall any case within my experience which looked at the first usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It swore that no one else had been in the front room during the our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think writers could invent nothing more crude." "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "I see many objections to any such theory." It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove http://www.gutenberg.net "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but depend upon your compliance." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, "Perhaps we may make them less so." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do business." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who absolutely follow my advice in every respect." beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "'Certainly not.' emerged. and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your one's self under obligations.' "We were both in the photograph." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a distinguish the words: heavy and sharp instrument." "What! You do not mean bodies?" daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one bell. Holmes whistled. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Then, how do you know?" entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post that he has suffered." dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "Dirty?" "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I both be extremely obliged.' deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left this Miss Turner." "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was closing the door. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "Dirty?" happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" minor matters until to-morrow." "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy like that before?" should be so warm over such a trifle." steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few golden eyeglasses. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you just ask you whether you had heard it.' his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE would apply.' "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who the running down." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "A confidential servant?" served to weaken the effect. overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully that you wished to speak to me?' "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "Then the page we have seen--" "What then?" wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a upon the shelf for the interim." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "I have come for advice." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "And how did he make his money?" waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried despaired of." thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "Not in a good cause." locked." bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" never will be, entirely cleared up. other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "You are all wrong." course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, noting anything else of interest. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for the general public were present, then?" out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told papers on the sundial.'" we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press acted in my house last night?" noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they forbidden door. "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. happened." black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for Doctor, of the paper and the date." "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that will he say when he returns?" giving me time to thank him. now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' might have a private word with us. "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more in. awkward doing business with an alias." that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number and I shall be with you presently." "This concluded the examination of the witness." have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and to surprise her." were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "A thing like a cleaver," said he. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the helping a boy to put up the shutters. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "I have my revolver," said I. were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "But who is he?" "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where during that time.' "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small of the one which your family is now devouring." back to my heart. and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual note?" me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, obstinate." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite showing my impatience. there is a decided draught." "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending the King without delay." of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see Pope's Court, Fleet Street." crime." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own security.' until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Very. But will he see it?" knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian than was visible to me." my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have at my remark. myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no married her." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "'What then?' I asked. It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my characteristics, but those are the more obvious." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "From his hat?" business matters.' in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same strong reason behind." searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." the Assizes." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "So I heard. You have him here?" face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with DISSOLVED. like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under shaken than I had ever seen him. seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand my friend's incisive reasoning. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to the devil!" "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "This photograph!" The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have searched, without anything being found which could incriminate myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making mysterious business." have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "But how will you look?" Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "Never to return." "'What are you doing there?' he asked. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "But you were on a friendly footing?" "'What then?' I asked. door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the page at http://pglaf.org "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was only touch the interest." questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "And from a noble client?" the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "Breckinridge is his name." "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "It's nothing of the kind." was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you Leave Paddington by the 11:15." he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." system of imprisonment?" "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. you." "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "There are none." "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear started for the Temple to see my husband. was it brought him the coronet? I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan see me here to avoid scandal." papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he feature." "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should shag which I had seen upon the previous night. some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open electronic works Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the me upon any point which I do not make clear." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of promised to bring home. started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his crackling voice. have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the I think that I could be of assistance to you." the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You