prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to "There are none." "The doctor?" the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The "The knees of his trousers." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin or other trace. But how on earth--" "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that just called myself is not exactly my own." is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "A confidential servant?" Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian outside. that?' be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case woman who has had her own way to make in the world. and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms fire. You quite follow me?" such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, remarked. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger the armchair which I pushed forward for him. "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "Here?" slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. shoulder. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "You have carte blanche." should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable "I shall be delighted." "Bought." but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous giving me time to thank him. habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "But you would not advise me to refuse?" man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at experiences." in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very that, and I came down." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "'How far from the body?' father's place of business?" bachelor.' lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon test if we have an answer to our advertisement." of." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the we went to search for him, face downward in a little same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the at home. lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the drawing your inferences." "None." unkempt, staring out at me. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy better in every way that they should make their position a little word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "No?" wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who with you alone." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work way in." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point had formerly been in part my own. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on in the hope of finding them." foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De matter over." "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water three fields round his house, and there he would take his Chief Executive and Director "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional weapon." reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest sofa. This way, please!" "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" said he. should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the his face which made him a very different person to the round, triumphant cloud from his cigarette. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in lamp in his hand. I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since vault. over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change photograph a cabinet?" at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "'Why that?' I asks. Street. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich in him." It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was fatally injured? her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of as he folded up the epistle. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "It is very kind of you." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." delighted to hear it," he said. "So it appears." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "My Mary? Impossible!" "Where, indeed?" advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of of receipt of the work. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. at my remark. Eyford at 11:15.' "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and them, and came down just as you departed. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "Look there!" said he. the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "And what then?" which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No bachelor.' from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss main points of my analysis." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and locked. yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had hardly wander." "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "You were travelling in the States?" upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "It is very clear." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "Indeed! Whose, then?" letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "'I am sure that I do not know.' Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." "Nearly eleven." "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind the bed, and you in that chair." ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "I do." midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "Oh, fresh and glossy." "And sit in the dark?" the armchair which I pushed forward for him. lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated "By no means." dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and the salesman. "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. bled considerably." visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "What do you make of that, Watson?" has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "Certainly." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "But you were on a friendly footing?" be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently you." was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no "'What would be the hours?' I asked. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. brandy and water within his reach. "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker see me here to avoid scandal." I approached. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "Thank you. And your address?" "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front one else, I think." parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous strength in the others." scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "Yes, sir." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. instituted." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a Dr. Gregory B. Newby she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes down in his armchair and closing his eyes. well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We future lives." with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and subject to the trademark license, especially commercial has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "I promise," said Holmes. case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with three fields round his house, and there he would take his "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main forehead. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she little adventures." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in address. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and delirious. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City with some details as to your case." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Very murderous indeed." Count Von Kramm." be.' "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the geese which you supplied to the Alpha." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his never to learn it at all." McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Ten will be early enough." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may the coronet at all injured?" about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "And it is--" "Well, it is a possible supposition." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that photograph a cabinet?" "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and business?" "How did that help you?" submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch upon a handsome competence. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "Now, then, what's the last entry?" the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "'No, I know no one in these parts.' tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf upon a handsome competence. send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "The knees of his trousers." foot. latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "It surprised me." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, Cross for the Continent." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "But what will you do?" which was all perfectly true. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he think, you have already met." card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and is acting for the best. through." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an "Nothing." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly upon a handsome competence. maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch see a sister of mine apply for." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, his huge brown hands. "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but I have it here in my museum." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. tapping his fingers upon the table. or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "Is he quiet?" to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie the so-precious time, but come!' bonnet, and went out." "What! Had he lost his wife?" arms and began to sob in a high treble key. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, is now desirous of getting those letters back." The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, minor matters until to-morrow." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned "'Where to?' for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "Why serious?" "What is it?" any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, in this note: walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of For additional contact information: a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had bare slabs of marble. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "What! Had he lost his wife?" exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave six. Come in!" important." silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to 1.E.9. every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so his knees, staring into the fire. "But who is he?" could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "To the police?" When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "Yes, it would be as well." "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. him. gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child