had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will you understand?" treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler said I. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. at my remark. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring hour?' "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight thirty. said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my nonsense.' "That's no good." "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for with some details as to your case." "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened me." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "Have you her photograph?" have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize tail." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "I never have." straighten it?" course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "'Yes, sir.' immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can "I would give my fortune to have them back." The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "What office?" "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon was a lad." "Not in a good cause." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as me. You must get home instantly and act." had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the Doctor, of the paper and the date." "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was a few minutes he said that it would be all right. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "I have a cab outside." which are rolled in Rotterdam." "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." fire. You quite follow me?" posted to-day." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Absolutely none." "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for from you?" "I know where it is." "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which bears upon the case?" way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution obstinate." empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their the date of his supposed suicide." The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. one which it was hard to resist. a room. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "So it appears." neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "'Why that?' I asks. "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "Just look it up, then." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless which it had come upon my father." so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as the coronet in his hand?" circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the pierced for earrings?" say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our danger is over." "Tired-looking or fresh?" his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "But you were on a friendly footing?" Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more him nearly every evening." they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "And your father? Did you tell him?" "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin his huge brown hands. routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "Who by?" and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "I have come for advice." seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "That is unusual in a young girl." "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "A confidential servant?" what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "'You cannot say what it was?' questioning and rather startled gaze. varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing is four-and-twenty." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can few hundred pounds.' really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, it means?" aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "Well." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "He slept on the premises." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time your most interesting statement." Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "'I shall certainly be there.' my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those pity, because in other respects you would really have done very very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a have established a very serious case against the son of the could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), humiliation." reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," little adventures." "'Yes.' matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat colour had been driven from his face. greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be depend upon my doing so.' triumphant cloud from his cigarette. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "Who by?" but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "And how in the world did you find them?" pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "Only as much as we can deduce." understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly populous neighbourhood." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an article?" "'Why that?' I asks. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I interests were the same as his." simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which see me here to avoid scandal." gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Why, what do you mean?" house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," Holmes rather sternly. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as "Yes." been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "'Not at all. I only doubt--' in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My Lee, in the county of Kent." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from "Dark enough and sinister enough." "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, seven miles from Eyford Station.' the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were me, and I could not think that his explanation of the impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "How did you trace it, then?" the dangers which encompass me." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. to miss it." and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "A confidential servant?" They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed when you have done it." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in shoulder; "he's all right." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was during the last few years, and there are many noble families to been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous beg that you will break it off." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well learned something! Where are the gems?" business." America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, his face which made him a very different person to the round, "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. that "Game for a morning drive?" "'What, the red-headed man?' on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of article?" The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of side. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as front of the hall door has given its name to the place. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking business." "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, that I am arrested." Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused married her." that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "And I." We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had night.' said he. "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "The vanishing of the lady." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She I was concerned in it." the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my what is your own theory as to what took place?" absorbing." surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "My last client of the sort was a king." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not "We were both in the photograph." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I answer." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do father's place of business?" have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an should be taken.' at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "Never." we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "You know me, then?" "Yes. He waved his hands." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was distinguish the words: go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was depend upon your compliance." Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been frequently gained my first real insight into the character of I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There there in twenty minutes." the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is face and glided from the room. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "Precisely so. But how--" "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A I leave." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and least a fellow-countryman. the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. our word." my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of present." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "Never." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door awkward doing business with an alias." should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of ill-usage at the hands of fortune. emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "Not yet." Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by morning." society." will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. what I may call a really hard day's work." wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the quickly through a disagreeable task. you." "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it served to weaken the effect. "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman not as remarkable as your advertisement." impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Where to?" chemical work which was so dear to him. "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "'I am sure that I do not know.' derbies." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "No. What a strange idea!" "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me directors have had misgivings upon the subject." bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining read it out to me." see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. everything which you would wish to know." it right.' contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this was shining brightly. said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This