"A thing like a cleaver," said he. the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and down. broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "And I say east," said my patient. me." compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should the driver. Where does the thing come from?' instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a o'clock is it?" beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, You want to know what became of those geese?" his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "Yes?" friends, not even his own brother. had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "Then I do not see the point." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "My Mary? Impossible!" Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "I cannot tell." hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle legal crime." passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "But who is he?" Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "'Why that?' I asks. police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and conclusions. "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "Never." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "It must be recovered." resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and these bleak autumnal evenings." "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has get the tickets." thirty. "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can quickly through a disagreeable task. roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "And why in hopes?" will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had business." advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to over part of the map. "What do you read?" "I think that I had better go, Holmes." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little lamp in his hand. drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when second window is the one that I jumped from." and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is the date of his supposed suicide." parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us help us in this matter." speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this meanly of me." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent train.' "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at confronted him. course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring questioning and rather startled gaze. "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been will he say when he returns?" sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were had died away into the silence from which it rose. son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter in. you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the events than those which have happened in my own family." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "No. His orders were to stay in the house." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes what I may call a really hard day's work." among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "And you can do nothing until then?" acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found some place of shelter and let the county police know what has was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and do." broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would to-night." "Will you bet, then?" We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without neither fascinating nor artistic." "Then I can wait in the next room." "And for present expenses?" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To cause to be." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Only as much as we can deduce." "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst 'please.'" the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "Of what day?" "BALLARAT." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "Not particularly." to a more successful conclusion." recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a records." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out them present such singular features as the strange train of upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but him to be an active member of the medical profession." at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "Yes." "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" into the bag, and made for the door. it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' wife's character?" "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "But his left-handedness." 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" in this way: Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "No, finished." astonishment. posted to-day." "By train from Waterloo." the devil!" be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who gbnewby@pglaf.org case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." fact, we may call it conclusive." "I was afraid that you were engaged." ceremony." clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my your bag." attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the The events in question occurred in the early days of my could not have written that. It is the German who is so I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your legal crime." open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of fish-monger and a tide-waiter." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "No sign of it?" down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered "Get out!" said he. o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." cigars in the box." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help is four-and-twenty." circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "So I heard. You have him here?" held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "That is unusual in a young girl." companion. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "One of his hands." his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." upon the shelf for the interim." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "No, distinctly professional." "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late despaired of." forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." danger is over." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not thirty. "She will not sell." though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to train from Paddington which would bring you there at about here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your asked with his eyes open. "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered to talk it over. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "Yes, all." o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. child?' impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies footfalls from the street. presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "No, I think that I'll take it." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and round and wave him away like that.' reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the and your relations to her." It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll house for five minutes.' "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been morning." had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "And it is--" another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and you." product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "I cannot say that I have." sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some "Nothing." companion imperturbably. brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you suspect him." had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The was a perfect sample of the class. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were quite distinctive." results." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "How are you getting on?" "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two bled considerably." served to weaken the effect. "You saw the ventilator, too?" a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "'You cannot say what it was?' which was all perfectly true. enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you easy-going way." Mrs. Toller serenely. Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save article?" third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the bonnet, and went out." populous neighbourhood." on re-entering her father's house?" wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the over here." "But I am all in the dark." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "What can it mean?" I gasped. brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could behind me. pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted questioning and rather startled gaze. letters?" Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. to have that photograph." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and go back?" security.' "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told within hail.' Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" question," said Holmes, smiling. was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to It may be so in this case, also." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "Of what day?" suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the His smile broadened. it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a place of silver." weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "I beg pardon." hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and man. I know him from the photograph." disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I "No more words. Get out!" sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of gbnewby@pglaf.org "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few weigh very heavily upon my conscience." hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were where she found matters as described by the last witness. a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and place, I think that there is good ground to think that the collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, Dr. Gregory B. Newby 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "I will not look." this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I compunction about shooting them down." "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you