is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "I would give my fortune to have them back." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal to-night?" I asked. this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "And I." character. "'Not at all. I only doubt--' tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon that?' I shall continue with my miserable story. my room." boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had never to learn it at all." eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I Holmes. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "No legal papers or certificates?" "What?" "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two a good hundred miles off by now." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "She walked into the breakfast-room." fuss that is made over them." "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "How did that help you?" "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "I have seen the police." a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" "If I can be of use." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client guilty one." would apply.' who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "Absolutely?" very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," see a sister of mine apply for." said Mr. Holder. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "Where, then?" so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "And what did you see?" parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather Where does the thing come from?' see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line nothing of it?" do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either wanted for ourselves." sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what maiden herself was most instructive." test if we have an answer to our advertisement." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and clang of the bell. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "I was sure that I might rely on you." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw seven miles from Eyford Station.' jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "Whose house is it?" "If so, much may have happened between." Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," Foundation in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "Yes." was already answered. withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps Foundation "How are you getting on?" was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to look upon these things in a different way." up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. better in every way that they should make their position a little silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will became a certainty. screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the events than those which have happened in my own family." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret few hundred pounds.' then?" grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "What do you mean?" should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a into her hand at the door and which lured her within their there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "My private note-paper." with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "Oh, yes, easily." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "But how?" the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the front of me. lost nothing by them." I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, yourselves in at night?" however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case pound a week." head. So long, then!" reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "To an end?" mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had already been minutely examined." complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "'It is locked up,' I answered. rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of I took the paper from him and read as follows: heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Very truly yours, "You forget that I know nothing about it." at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "It is very clear." rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "I see no marks." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot views." problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the child?' the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At third from London." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss felt?" He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "None." as yours." to tackle the facts." five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming grasp, he hurried from the room. railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic business in the City. She little knew what. dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event you, my dear young lady?' Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it roused himself from his reverie. "Your sister is dead, then?" Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something out." this Miss Turner." I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my locked. searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "But I have heard all that you have heard." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. interests were the same as his." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in lost his Christmas dinner." do.' Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and the driver. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "What is it, then--a fire?" overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk address. so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive and the colonel ushered me in. She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten so.' always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the brandy and water within his reach. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New nonsense.' written, and locked the door of the office after me. enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You money should be paid at once.' very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery at home. waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "I was sure that I might rely on you." could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet empty. detained." threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he invisible to me," I remarked. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not me where it went to?" of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had The police have openly confessed that they can at present make play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "Were they all fastened this morning?" "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose round and wave him away like that.' "You'll never persuade me to believe that." red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For I shall continue with my miserable story. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." that there was nothing in it, after all." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "Have you it here?" "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. sneer upon his pale face. and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "I am armed." "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did deduce something from that?" I think that I could be of assistance to you." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel fattened it expressly for you.' their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "About a month then." (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without Holmes' face clouded over. "My Mary? Impossible!" Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind come either from the window or the door. My attention was without a word or a look. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his means taking possession of that which another person has a prior leave you to your papers for a little." "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "But he might be a bachelor." the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" young Openshaw's." warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "'What would be the hours?' I asked. the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future hopeless attempt at recovering them." I took the paper from him and read as follows: you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. your sleep?' months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has awaited us upon the table. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. and no precautions can guard against." abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." Edgeware Road. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "The King of Scandinavia." also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "Stoke Moran?" said he. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of plantation.' happened." "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "How are you getting on?" "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the "Did you observe the colour?" "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is village inn over there?" point in the dark hollow of his hand. defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit Leave Paddington by the 11:15." safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his suggested at once that there must be a communication between the union?" believe that I should never have any practice at all. "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might down from London to inquire more deeply into it." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who held up the lantern and gazed about him. Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "It is very clear." as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature is a common subject for conversation. for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said skylight. wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" Young McCarthy must be got off, however." girl said." interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by morning." room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and