St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to nothing with him." quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's your only hope of safety." since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for of it with the greatest attention. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "'And the work?' "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that Mary, has deserted me." which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the do.' were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any will take you up to see the machine.' it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he Young McCarthy must be got off, however." and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place likely to be some crony of the landlady's." ways of our fellow-men." gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a both be extremely obliged.' of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "What then?" his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were man. but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The occurred." politicians who had been sent down from the North. him!" prove to be little relation between the different incidents of 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "Proceed, then." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "And did you observe any change in her then?" I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, place of silver." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "I warn you that they are very incomplete." to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "And the cigar-holder?" expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. it." one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my look dissatisfied." "A client, then?" pressing in one house as in another. I leave." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand such attractions and accomplishments?' would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the shag which I had seen upon the previous night. electronic works rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our anything to do with the matter?" surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" the iron safe, which he closed upon it. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third points to suicide?" "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "What are they?" whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a so far?" look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." possible that we could bring him back to her? fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" the very morning of the wedding." "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. such attractions and accomplishments?' likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I records." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the neither fascinating nor artistic." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this could gather together that I was able to avert another public the running down." the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to to-night." stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "It must be recovered." most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to compunction about shooting them down." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert village inn over there?" for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten closely." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking the matter?" would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with to-night?" I asked. "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can shall not find me ungrateful." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "Yes, it would be as well." tell him that I know him to be innocent." companion imperturbably. "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." should be so warm over such a trifle." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account to-night's adventure." "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "'Certainly not.' registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can gigantic client. however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "It is possible." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless I held the little printed slip to the light. manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's which are rolled in Rotterdam." criminal. We have already had experience of such." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your you?" The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as Countess of Morcar's?" "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "It was." morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly careless servant girl?" "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we friend's singular character. apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My place no limit on the sum I may draw." wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear other lovers by making love himself." find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever lectures into a series of tales." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this congratulate you again." before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came to go into your room and bar your shutters?" the armchair which I pushed forward for him. willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Yes." "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to manager. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from compunction about shooting them down." a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the of it with the greatest attention. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my or other trace. But how on earth--" Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If asked with his eyes open. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." nonsense.' paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and shoulder; "he's all right." set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "No." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the papers diligently of late, have you not?" ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with I approached. so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, electronic works here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting desk. "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could that threaten you." going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to laugh and put his lips to my ear. "'Ample.' Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her You can understand that this register and diary may implicate it with his own hands." I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us call the police, let the police find what they can.' well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up that, and I came down." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So closing the door. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been paper in the air. "Yes." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. flock.' had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "Never." before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and constraint." Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite three of the beryls in it, was missing. door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and be. snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was envelope. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "I have seen the police." mystery!" "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his villagers almost as much as their master. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" speckled band?" here and I will read it to you: out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "Yes, only one." this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. His name is Francis Prosper." laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily weigh very heavily upon my conscience." brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "Well?" never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "So I have heard." The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I without a word or a look. may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money have accepted such a situation. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of served to weaken the effect. public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "Why did you pick him?" The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "Did your wife hear all this?" do.' "When did she vanish, then?" crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the the south-west, I see." the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "He said that you could solve anything." and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "Your presence might be invaluable." twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly detained." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he following enigmatical notices: called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be pressing in one house as in another. "She showed me, as I told you she would." "None." it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, all that?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea better grown goose." how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with the matter." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the such person." "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Of what day?" his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means simple cases which are so extremely difficult." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope details." scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a God! What an exposure! What can I do?" the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "Well, but China?" "And how did you verify them?" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "I saw her in conversation with her maid." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, and the colonel ushered me in. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from very peculiar words of the dying woman?" IS other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "My dear fellow, I congratulate you."