I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." have been better. It is all right." the salesman. "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage respectable self." into the bag, and made for the door. ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a and it need not interfere very much with one's other http://www.gutenberg.net "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, "But the mystery?" work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have door?" table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was started for the Temple to see my husband. in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "To ruin me." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." and inquire as to the address." "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "I cannot tell." lips." clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' is so. I know all about McCarthy." present." presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had gone. machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "Why, what do you mean?" vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting he bowed and left the room without another word. whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. been shamefully used." acquaintance?" that you can jump it.' vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For and the whole place is in a blaze." For additional contact information: dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat once more. yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most business in the City. She little knew what. never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan asked with his eyes open. your equipment. wanted for ourselves." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that indiscretion." directors have had misgivings upon the subject." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." of this gang." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, best detective that ever lived. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most to miss it." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "Tired-looking or fresh?" Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, them?" brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "Proceed, then." and that he would see to anything that turned up. cup of tea. to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and "That is possible." up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "But his lameness?" as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police the warnings." think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. only touch the interest." "He disappeared so suddenly." you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite to surprise her." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' there." "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty is entirely a question of barometric pressure." power." Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "'I am sure if I had known--' lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice lectures into a series of tales." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. fatally injured? "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Never to return." gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I them present such singular features as the strange train of a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was think, you have already met." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day nothing with him." As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. DISSOLVED. the address that was given us in the advertisement. "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." DISSOLVED. entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Perhaps I have." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. that you saw all that I did." brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "It is solved." from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it once more for Briony Lodge. address. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the second." "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "But his left-handedness." The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my photograph a cabinet?" this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt criminal. We have already had experience of such." first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on place of silver." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which more terrible than the truth. guilty parties." quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with any little problem which you may submit to me." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "Two days later this same performance was gone through under absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, nonsense.' flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "'In my own bureau.' examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "Get out!" said he. "That is easily got." Watson," he said cordially. "About a month then." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "What do you make of that, Watson?" them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "Oh, fresh and glossy." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room back to my heart. "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were business." "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. three fields round his house, and there he would take his morning." "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. to his chemical studies. "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique Lestrade of Scotland Yard." you." take the flies, but not before." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "You horrify me!" is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more annoyance, but no jest. I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "One of the highest in England." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "I am to be neutral?" once more. letters?" stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it Street. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, upon an income of about 60 pounds." present." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able cigars in the box." were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and fat-encircled eyes. days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack footfalls from the street. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "Holmes, the busybody!" "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of problems help me to do so." finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no tapping his fingers upon the table. will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his made his money." the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the it were putty." even so self-evident a thing as that." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' to-night's adventure." have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "That is not always so easy." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "And I say east," said my patient. while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "Indeed! Whose, then?" "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "But the mystery?" manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "Nothing?" endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the the coronet in his hand?" nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my to his chemical studies. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss see a sister of mine apply for." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "I say it is." he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. tail." her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. up this clue while it is still hot." "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. "You saw the ventilator, too?" "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. threw himself down with his face to the pillow. other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter touch that coronet?' with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the with her." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have go from here to the Strand." to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I that?' as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "Do you go out much in society?" "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the forbidden door. girl said." contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A fashion which was peculiar to him. was keenly on my guard against him. firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. married her." sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "Yes, but only for you and me." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as bore every mark of being an average commonplace British within hail.' having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical always that they were such commands as a lady might with the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. coroner's jury." Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number behind me. exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "How did he come?" upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the disappearance of these gems?" "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed digesting their breakfasts at home." room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which suddenly upon us." demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "Yes." directors have had misgivings upon the subject." partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City nothing with him."