rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on forbidden door. and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater emerged. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "I was mad--insane." "Ten will be early enough." without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," not fit the lock." from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he Holmes. Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with spark where all is dark to me." indeed which he could not unravel. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to evidence," I remarked. "My stepfather's business papers." France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." populous neighbourhood." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "My Mary? Impossible!" "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from fear." and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "What do you mean?" "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "Was the window open?" disturbance in my wife." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "Yes?" which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was back alive. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off views." exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable he died? what these perils are?" think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, down from London to inquire more deeply into it." inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "Yes." "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to which it had come upon my father." makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the shadow pass over his face as I spoke. outside. acted in my house last night?" "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He nonsense.' With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" second window is the one that I jumped from." "The knees of his trousers." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front as this. Pray let me have the details." observed. "'Why that?' I asks. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I begin with, and I had not got mine yet." away in different directions, and I went off to make my own true." this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, few hundred pounds.' home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife and glanced through. noble correspondent could be. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "From his hat?" "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I narrative." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of carpenter." IS cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have Henry Baker is a member." happened." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a events, Mr. Windibank!" "My dear Holmes!" papers diligently of late, have you not?" Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were the little opening for the ventilator is." been." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," really the only notable feature about the thing." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "Precisely so. But how--" "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was tension within him. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, door?" reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the remarked. above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to room?" 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really had this final quarrel? determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: coat-tails." "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began the devil!" huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "Yes." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the "'Ample.' in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Then you may entirely rely on me." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Will you bet, then?" "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to anything to a woman, for she would have her way." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the enter Dr. Roylott's room." "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "I never have." admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "No good news?" eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still of note-paper. It read in this fashion: with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one one of the states of the Union." was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by said he at last. strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the never to learn it at all." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and to-morrow." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net with her." was keenly on my guard against him. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "That is possible." realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." this unhappy family?" "So I am. Very much so." dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. interest. They are important, you understand, without being lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting as he remarks, very much against the son." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a not fit the lock." months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I whereabouts. "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for excitement. observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." so.' The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the Serpentine Avenue. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "What! Had he lost his wife?" estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "How often?" caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had "Won't it ring?" to-night." "Dirty?" "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "His face fell immediately. "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, name is different." course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the photograph a cabinet?" upon a handsome competence. "What! You do not mean bodies?" sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally closing the door. than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she been deceived." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved 'please.'" room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the again before evening." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger and that he would see to anything that turned up. "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales in the dead of the night?' "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father particular state visit http://pglaf.org it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can he died? flock.' fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still forecastle of an emigrant ship. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." character. said he. rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. you do it in twenty minutes!' inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would papers diligently of late, have you not?" initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "A greater distance to travel." The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "And from a noble client?" Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has bachelor.' "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "Look there!" said he. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, here." "Absolutely?" whole matter to your consideration." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "I assure you that I am in your hands." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. Clair, of Lee." which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "No?" repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook present." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "My dear Holmes!" "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, in this note: light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be became a certainty. answered with a sidelong glance. The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "You know me, then?" set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. when your master had gone out." as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very gbnewby@pglaf.org when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "Certainly." the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we flock.' "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "What will you say?" "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "Do you know him?" outside. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting absorbing." box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, been deceived." "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and You can understand that this register and diary may implicate misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "Yes?" lamp. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and once more. with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," wedding?" "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there did not hear it also.' doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." "Texas, I think." after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "Do you receive much company?" he asked. side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and been deceived." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "Then, how do you know?" "How did that help you?" acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." green of the new foliage. thin legs towards the fire. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer just called myself is not exactly my own." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The I. "What have you done?" asked Holmes. there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "But you have hopes?" and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of answered with a sidelong glance. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set