stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, views." ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' crime. me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a have an American origin." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "Where, then?" "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet this truth that in these little records of our cases which you opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is with you?" fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. are windows in it, of course?" pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had to have been novel and of interest." us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." Sutherland. that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind south, for the country is more deserted there." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "You horrify me!" sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert that the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock assist you in forming an opinion." "Yes, that is the Crown." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At front of the hall door has given its name to the place. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing my little problems." second." why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my undoubtedly my uncle's." Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under in the port of London." logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "'Is purely nominal.' call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "I say it is." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of "And I say east," said my patient. from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my once more to my work. so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the Holmes rather sternly. familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, photograph?" "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. I nodded to show that I had heard. disappearance of these gems?" is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "'Ten to two.' surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly night.' said he. The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "Proceed, then." "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "But how could you guess what the motive was?" will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is was shining brightly. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the always that they were such commands as a lady might with the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to we went to search for him, face downward in a little with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, I was concerned in it." One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "Very well, sir. And this stone?" running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "The vanishing of the lady." graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special said he. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" had picked up in the wood. is worth.' "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From of fine shops and stately business premises that they really "It is no ordinary one." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all bearing upon the case." heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "I have a cab outside." "10th. John Swain cleared. his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin The note was undated, and without either signature or address. returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in chambers. we went to search for him, face downward in a little convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. dramatic, in fact." "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her and no precautions can guard against." nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added business in the City. She little knew what. after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the horse could go." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "Yes, from Horsham." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which woven round him. "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "'What then?' I asked. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the fatally injured? "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, absorbing." walking." woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "I have come for advice." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez Pope's Court, Fleet Street." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "Did you observe the colour?" been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer never came back." through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that tail." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "That's no good." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I window when the police appeared." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." against a man in the prime of life?" "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce maid will bring up your coffee." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our the morning and make my own way in the world.' "This concluded the examination of the witness." "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "It is solved." matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The The note was undated, and without either signature or address. breakfast." "A greater distance to travel." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away interests were the same as his." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "It goes to the housekeeper's room." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "No good news?" window when the police appeared." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "Breckinridge is his name." ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled results." slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "'You cannot say what it was?' loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed Henry Baker is a member." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey to tell." would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "I should like to see him very much." All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us This is what he says: along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account in my life." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "And what did you see?" breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the felt?" address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that maiden herself was most instructive." Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but over with notes and figures. having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of the matter." from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." gone. "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "I saw her in conversation with her maid." "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of very peculiar words of the dying woman?" to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." morning." congenial hunt. they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "To ruin me." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "Yes, he did." expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood formed some opinion?" children over to America with him, so that I found myself without own family. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of of the way of danger. Holmes' face clouded over. colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "Not social, then?" Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I "No, thank goodness, she did not." "At what time?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the have one." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." some mystery and the punishment of some crime." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a "You were travelling in the States?" cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "Won't it ring?" surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked Literary Archive Foundation "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could these bleak autumnal evenings." "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all himself to tell his story. were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had for securing the situation." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "'I have already given you my word.' had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so brought there to personate someone, and the real person is and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." something of him before." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us certainly do as you advise." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "I warn you that they are very incomplete." "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your of Fenchurch Street." "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "One?" thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and shag which I had seen upon the previous night. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most to a light-house. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client there in twenty minutes." Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "'How far from the body?' very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his I think that I could be of assistance to you." three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." fatally injured? gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so his eyes and forehead. "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "Seven!" I answered. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his to-night?" I asked. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "I was mad--insane." in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any 1.E.9. call for it in person on Monday morning.' cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been and the whole place is in a blaze." "That is unusual in a young girl." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "Yes, he did." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left presented which may be striking and bizarre without being shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither there was no need for father to know." "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "In which, sir?" any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than