and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "Where did you address your letters, then?" "Ha! you find it so?" "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "What then?" gbnewby@pglaf.org "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "No." crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to writing, and yet I know it well." in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was business." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy particular state visit http://pglaf.org Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "When did she vanish, then?" considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her used to be." the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes that the gas is not laid on in his house?" for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and this truth that in these little records of our cases which you Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "Here?" extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "But who is he?" since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "Perhaps we may make them less so." "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at "How often?" clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the too. august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, round with crates and massive boxes. *** START: FULL LICENSE *** "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I events, Mr. Windibank!" loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began hardly wander." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "What!" he roared. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. said he. written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and stalked out of the room. "In which, sir?" me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "Come in!" said he. seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to assist you in forming an opinion." round with crates and massive boxes. great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant My friend smiled. past. true." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for into the room. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "'There is a drive, then?' distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what cigars in the box." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this stood on the top of it. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. green of the new foliage. Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Did you observe the colour?" there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "You are hungry," I remarked. His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others one of the states of the Union." life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "I was afraid that you were engaged." sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let bled considerably." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had Surrey." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "One of the highest in England." them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, was already answered. the coroner come to?" forecastle of an emigrant ship. weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the who was a member of your goose club." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." purpose equally well?" remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of side. "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "Pray be precise as to details," said he. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "Certainly." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, that before taking the final step I should like to submit the anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the tassel actually lying upon the pillow. headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "And that is--" whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the The telegram which we eventually received came late one night conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the nursery. reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there is a decided draught." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought weapon." about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a said he. half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She how narrow had been my escape. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this hurried away. national property. I was determined that the law should have its wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. union?" "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a cup of tea. in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It chance at all." chemical work which was so dear to him. "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "His face fell immediately. drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." and a shock of very red hair. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the went to the Alpha were town bred." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." relief. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the and capable of preserving a secret.' traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "I am to be neutral?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an and wait." finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, which was all perfectly true. he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a directly by questioning you." "I was mad--insane." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian directors have had misgivings upon the subject." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "I have hopes." office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who so.' fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has "Yes, sir." nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable did not hear it also.' his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "A client, then?" was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "Could he throw no light?" the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "'Certainly not. But why?' "I am about to be married." really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not gone before you can get him to hospital." bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "Murdered?" relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, legal crime." like that before?" "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we The police have openly confessed that they can at present make not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been stood on the top of it. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. searched, without anything being found which could incriminate were wasted." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "I will not look." strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "What! a murderous attack?" keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress presented more singular features than that which was associated week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the suddenly upon us." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "'Is 4 pounds a week.' happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, fashion which was peculiar to him. hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is eat it." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of at my remark. and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from visitors." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his tapping his fingers upon the table. which we had just quitted. foresight and the moral retrogression?" It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head to-night." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. the running down." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. one of them." have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you in him." then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my acquaintance?" conclusions. "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and stepfather?" long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish salesman. have established a very serious case against the son of the of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point served to weaken the effect. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "'I am sure if I had known--' they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "The rest you will leave in our hands." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. papers must be those that are destroyed.' mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I detained." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to to some other building. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, nonsense.' she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless I took the paper from him and read as follows: clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted sparkled upon his finger. nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "I never have." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "And did you observe any change in her then?" of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "A client, then?" house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a learned something! Where are the gems?" shag which I had seen upon the previous night. I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your all-comprehensive glances. "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the charged with?" "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "But she will refuse." constraint." Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "The vanishing of the lady." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch paper in the air. suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the writer." the general public were present, then?" swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very been deceived." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name down. from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" hereditary King of Bohemia." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a you?" of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that ventilator." It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered