"Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "I am about to be married." long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly useful material for showing traces. The double line a little came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "I am following you closely," I answered. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man "And how?" fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "I cannot think." the child." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "Then the page we have seen--" "Yes, all." learned something! Where are the gems?" "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and the child." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "Witness: Nothing definite. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us next day. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "No good news?" have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, there has been an enclosure here!" whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only confronted him. ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who His name is Francis Prosper." glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "I have a cab outside." alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Lestrade of Scotland Yard." permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said wall." again." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom during which he might have communicated with his friend the British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it pressing in one house as in another. "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at unclasping of his long thin hands. some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with his huge brown hands. registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water as noiselessly as she had come. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." what these perils are?" transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I You can understand that this register and diary may implicate became a certainty. of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute 'I should be able to look after that for you.' became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to looking up at the numbers of the houses." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a colonel looking down at me. the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on directly by questioning you." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of sparkled upon his finger. "By no means." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to bed dies. Does not that strike you?" tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite later, upon the night of May 2nd." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, photograph?" train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Witness: Nothing definite. "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were the salesman. "Is he quiet?" woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I visitors." belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" front of the hall door has given its name to the place. drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at 'I should be able to look after that for you.' closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, particular state visit http://pglaf.org returning from some small jollification and was making his way "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at it right.' Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "I assure you that I am in your hands." the Friday. Was it to be in church?" 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "None. Neville wrote those words." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and into the bag, and made for the door. was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband round and wave him away like that.' shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming your own bird, so if you wish--" confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, Eyford at 11:15.' "Where, then?" little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the you." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." absorbing." save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "Yes, that is the Crown." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "A confidential servant?" not fit the lock." in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that even so self-evident a thing as that." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he house for five minutes.' the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the carriage. It was a chestnut." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or but preventing her from injuring another. "Do you know him?" search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the answer." "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned British peeress.'" here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest a few minutes he said that it would be all right. leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There present strange and interesting features that it is no easy away in different directions, and I went off to make my own excitement. "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "What do you mean?" where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his once more. Literary Archive Foundation inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. morning." Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "I guessed as much." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine man. "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your held up the lantern and gazed about him. "I saw her in conversation with her maid." used to be." you understand?" the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" where Mr. Fordham shows you.' a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "You have compromised yourself seriously." Count Von Kramm." down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "Of what day?" my friend's incisive reasoning. was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the them present such singular features as the strange train of hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. weary and pale-looking. "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "And I." in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" guilty parties." "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "I am all attention, madam." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "Nearly eleven." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "I should like to see him very much." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be indiscretion." closely." "And sit in the dark?" hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that suspect him." "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very people in all walks of life. "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, "Nothing." "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." experiences." at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, absolutely follow my advice in every respect." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he the coronet in his hands?" "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "'Is 4 pounds a week.' grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he said he. intrusion of other matters." "'Then let me do so?' "Yes." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "And on what day did he meet his death?" "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an orange pips. it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, nice household for a young lady." "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "Yes?" "Where, indeed?" certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each fear." face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be the very morning of the wedding." to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "Yes, at the mines." stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "I will get her to show me." your troubles." "I know where it is." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door nonsense.' London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at the night.' 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "Yes, the wine-cellar." "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "None." "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "You think so, too?" slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, to where he stood hid behind the curtain. week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "To ruin me." waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "I say it is." as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Was the window open?" "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for the room while you explain this matter?" him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some their singular warning or token before them when starting upon learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would speckled band?" he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did "'Certainly not.' through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled window when the police appeared." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away foresight and the moral retrogression?" you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he retorted upon me, and I on you." which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last quick march!" chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my you." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and My friend smiled. The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "'Which dealer's?' observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. locked." down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may miles off. that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." said he. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, miles off. I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my Holmes' room. gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so have an American origin." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press Holmes rather sternly. "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "9th. McCauley cleared. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I have had none more fantastic than this." "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is weary and pale-looking. "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I them, and came down just as you departed. were unconscious?" you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" advice." 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. open." panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must kindly on the shoulder. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "How do you know, then?" fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." was used.' "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both conclusions. reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the congenial hunt. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" since then to throw any light upon what became of him." all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where the inner apartment." and no precautions can guard against." to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her standing smiling on the door-step. petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the think that any burglar could have done. remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "Yes, at the mines." "Yes." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother straighten it?" home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer was the fact that his father should, according to his account, eavesdroppers?' money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that or other trace. But how on earth--" "Yes, he did." discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Your French gold?" male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." call it cruel." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a that I am arrested." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at within hail.' "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you