my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. horse could go." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and are, I think, all that we need." home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my drawing your inferences." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened Serpentine Avenue. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "My last client of the sort was a king." Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until away in different directions, and I went off to make my own obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an security.' "Were they all fastened this morning?" key turn in the lock." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "Come in!" said Holmes. details." story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "You have but to name it." room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked and put his glass in his pocket. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "Not yet." reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "Oh, the cause is excellent!" arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge seen the man in the road." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "Not yet." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask know that the truth is known." "Yes, the wine-cellar." "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with some mystery and the punishment of some crime." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "My dear Holmes!" most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the awaited us upon the table. the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "Yes, from Horsham." naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the "I came to find a friend." "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be weapon." "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No strength of mind to control. loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, examine." direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Oh, yes, easily." his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very License. You must require such a user to return or affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know have an American origin." "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less But Holmes shook his head gravely. upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "None." to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "Just look it up, then." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "Yes." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed to you." call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and house for five minutes.' on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a the one as in the other." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "Yes, I have one waiting." years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads any more." "What, then, did Peterson do?" Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at past. time." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique the side-table." rat could hardly pass through." sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, "It is half-past ten now." to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that there in twenty minutes." years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich certainly not very gracious." it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "Married! When?" lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known name is different." smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of suspect him." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her me where it went to?" brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man young Openshaw's." remarked. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. leave you to your papers for a little." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "What are they?" "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "Imitated." peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly one or two very singular points about this room. For example, presented which may be striking and bizarre without being perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "My own seal." had a long day." clanging. the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "But I am all in the dark." "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, "No." that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it an introduction to him?" bedroom door." in this way: "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle success. but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to once more. here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "About a month then." inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See ordinary clothes on?" "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "Of Friday, June 19th." walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "I see no marks." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "I was mad--insane." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his light and attacked it." which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little again before evening." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "Stoke Moran?" said he. rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite all?" above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on hardly wander." corner of the building. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "Game for a morning drive?" weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without money should be paid at once.' Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "Will you bet, then?" front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "You don't mind breaking the law?" I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "You are all wrong." "Ah!" deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall the iron safe, which he closed upon it. time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "By no means." I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic he died? Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "Then I shall certainly come." "'Certainly not. But why?' papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke and looked back. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "Why did you pick him?" and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy stepfather?" that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it is worth.' have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." indeed happy." us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and in my life." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her little adventures." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of down. "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "Here?" man. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. these bleak autumnal evenings." him. "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "'How far from the body?' whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten nothing of it?" for securing the situation." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may way: "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "Then how many are there?" autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of of." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her acquaintance?" journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets said I. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me ventilator." massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was affair. "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' DAMAGE. "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Well." "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just forbidden door. the coroner come to?" carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away vanished into the darkness. "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and tell him that I know him to be innocent." criminal. We have already had experience of such." journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "What! Had he lost his wife?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "Nor running a chance of arrest?" the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "Because he was handy and would come cheap." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, happened." double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and nothing with him." wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the taking in every detail of the apartment. broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug other lovers by making love himself." subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be leave you to your papers for a little." which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" Lee, in the county of Kent." one's self under obligations.' step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open Holmes. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "You have it, sir, just as it happened." appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I look upon these things in a different way." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there read it out to me." "Quite so. She has her freedom." business." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some been with you?" "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "No, my brougham is waiting." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light believe that I should never have any practice at all. there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "That also I could fathom." have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had down. rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into "It's nothing of the kind." "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "'What would be the hours?' I asked. propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their morning." Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered asked. detained." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "Why? What do you mean?" to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the conceal it?" daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "Pray let us have it, for all that." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his easy-going way." murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "You have a clue?" out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage walking." "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the breakfast?" the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "VIOLET HUNTER." "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him