"Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "My opinion is in no way altered." learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which only touch the interest." painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, like that before?" trying to your nerves." Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture silent! Oh, he will be silent!' saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but most interesting one." "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "Then, as to money?" "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the soul! here is her carriage at the door." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does was lame." as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other be there in time for your coming." "The Cedars?" facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate paper in the air. purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Nothing?" There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "I am still in the dark." harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face you?' "Bought." imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this is four-and-twenty." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "What is it?" I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past seem to you to be relevant or not." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "'Ten to two.' wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "To an end?" at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "I cannot tell." it." to have that photograph." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I and looked back. throat." "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced bonnet, and went out." - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from prison!" "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at which I could not give. He asked for Alice. turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet certainly not very gracious." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for salesman. correct than the official force." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "Eh? What was that?" the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly enough to aid us in our search." be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it whether it answered to the description of any of their enter into my head. was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the gone before you can get him to hospital." they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his bill, which interests me deeply." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with once more for Briony Lodge. "And when will you call?" "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, was shining brightly. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting Sutherland?" wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in For additional contact information: a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom Chief Executive and Director rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he unclasping of his long thin hands. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to emerged. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An when you have done it." furiously. standing smiling on the door-step. key of the affair now." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. second." salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "And that is--" took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "Not I." of receipt of the work. It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes drove away. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban 'please.'" jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the shoulder. could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that confronted him. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know to where he stood hid behind the curtain. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! him!" an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "You have but to name it." overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "And how did he make his money?" here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "You horrify me!" It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." carriage. It was a chestnut." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does wedding?" sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland as noiselessly as she had come. very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "My opinion is in no way altered." of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "Has he come with you to-night?" come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if one which it was hard to resist. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how where we are going." "But she could not love him." "'And the work?' "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the Surrey." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he ashen face. their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while fact, we may call it conclusive." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "ARAT," I read. heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left definite end. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "'Certainly not.' "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "It came here." old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the writer." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you me. You must get home instantly and act." docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY "Stolen." "Certainly." have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without "And I to find an enemy." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the details." "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "'Is 4 pounds a week.' in your London, you will know that the office of the company is the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I girl said." "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "And your mother is alive?" among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "But she could not love him." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been child?' of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of I was concerned in it." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." to have that photograph." "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE wall." dear old homesteads?" performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "Can I be of assistance?" train.' and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "At half-wages, in fact." increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "9th. McCauley cleared. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "And for present expenses?" shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked present." "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "'What do you call purely nominal?' then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "Murdered?" and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden had died away into the silence from which it rose. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "And how have you succeeded?" poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the generous with you in money matters.' Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "'Which dealer's?' Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast said he, "my real name is James Ryder." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It had died away into the silence from which it rose. "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "How many? I don't know." entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case Surrey." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent impression behind it as though a window had gently closed its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "What can it mean?" I gasped. a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her humiliation." black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and at home. the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a was used.' conduct the inquiry." way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "No, my brougham is waiting." for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "My opinion is in no way altered." manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. such attractions and accomplishments?' "May I see it?" the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most that he has suffered." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a three of the beryls in it, was missing. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "And now?" He raised his hand. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round acquaintance?" photograph?" hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air unclasping of his long thin hands. of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the envelope. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "I think that I had better go, Holmes." saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "And help." with you?" in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The cigars in the box." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet respectable self." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room never to learn it at all." scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check the devil!" just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "Well?" "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the other, as fresh and trim as possible. that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I skylight. "Do you know him?" he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was thirty. "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "The murder was done with it." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried weigh very heavily upon my conscience." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit pound a week." Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have