"Not yet." said I. space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It have established a very serious case against the son of the "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did crowd. little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "We were both in the photograph." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "How are you getting on?" charge against him will break down." pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through conceal it?" walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, key turn in the lock." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "Yes, he did." "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and which are rolled in Rotterdam." "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "So I am. Very much so." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be which are rolled in Rotterdam." believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. charge against him will break down." as this. Pray let me have the details." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "Precisely." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Seven!" I answered. "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible door?" themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, trying to your nerves." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "Perhaps I have." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "Precisely." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their was once confined in the cab my mission was practically rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "The vanishing of the lady." "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in do." "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. "Entirely." with some details as to your case." threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, article?" swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very relief. conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." nonsense.' belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as spark where all is dark to me." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "'Yes, it was gone.' carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but which should have the effect of calling the attention of the the child." whatever might befall. secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second the house with me." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough third from London." "I should be immensely obliged to you." this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing not interfere, come what may. You understand?" week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "Then I do not see the point." attention." danger is over." have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, behind me. "'No, I know no one in these parts.' should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more your sleep?' against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the outbreak?" is acting for the best. "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must views." make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to the inquest, and which are worth considering." "You have the photograph?" "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the to change my dress. rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible open." face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of know that the truth is known." as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. note?" "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." must compliment you." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "Yes, all." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "What office?" the armchair which I pushed forward for him. entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "Oh, yes, easily." access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the were new raised from a basin. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was ashen face. "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "Pray do so." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I south, for the country is more deserted there." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "I do." said he at last. the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not front of me. "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to I shall communicate with you." He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "Come in!" said he. "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "I fear not." "No, I am descending." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, that there was nothing in it, after all." hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew said he. of them has the shutters up.' DISSOLVED. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my intrusion of other matters." written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. enough to aid us in our search." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my she used." http://gutenberg.net/license). more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary closely." thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" if I call to-morrow?" "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "One of his hands." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some the Red-headed League." 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "Won't it ring?" dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant of." I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to Holmes' face clouded over. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. charge against him will break down." "In answer to an advertisement." notes," he said. straightened it out again. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without not fit the lock." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "Yes." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are call for it in person on Monday morning.' cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. or in danger--" advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "Certainly." "That is unusual in a young girl." enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "But his lameness?" "And Miss Sutherland?" here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned Watson," he said cordially. very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been lamp. too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both more solid." "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "The gentleman I describe." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, rooms." "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "And what then?" thought that she would have been so carried away." lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "At half-wages, in fact." was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign awkward doing business with an alias." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush there were one or two details which were new to me. But the in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of matter over." searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found been deceived." until night should bring an explanation. "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "'Where could I find him?' the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "I guessed as much." "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had acquaintance?" known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "Not yet." with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and DAMAGE. Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This used to be." left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. in this note: cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come weapon." "I should wish to." father's place of business?" deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his test if we have an answer to our advertisement." it were putty." your Highness to the police-station?" "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the leaning back in his chair. He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "And I." the so-precious time, but come!' "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and country, and eventually married, without anyone having a chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the instincts rose up against that laugh. "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" Mary, has deserted me." fat-encircled eyes. undoubtedly my uncle's." morning." brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "'You doubt its value?' he asked. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband fuss that is made over them." Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. Again Holmes raved in the air. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but of a light. "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to are windows in it, of course?" dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you threw himself down with his face to the pillow. that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended throat." "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. answered with a sidelong glance. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear "The knees of his trousers." say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its thirty. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you in the dead of the night?' really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "But how did you gain them?" golden eyeglasses. my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very advice." "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, train from Paddington which would bring you there at about so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying pierced for earrings?" or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a charge against him will break down." humiliation." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, light and attacked it." seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for