distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so drawing your inferences." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have light and attacked it." in darkness. strode off upon his way. His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly to-night." fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No an introduction to him?" Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began one of them." to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. emerged. for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a business?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I you?" four million human beings all jostling each other within the which was all perfectly true. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still even so self-evident a thing as that." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and coroner's jury." (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of promised to bring home. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found and a shock of very red hair. compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed some water from a caraffe. is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with go back?" "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, the bed, and you in that chair." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some is worth.' best detective that ever lived. something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "I should wish to." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "And what did you see?" suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when details." she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the in my life." society." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and Young McCarthy must be got off, however." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. begun to whiten, even as mine has." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, we went to search for him, face downward in a little "Why serious?" as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while room had already been engaged for us. banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch way in everything. chemical work which was so dear to him. "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt shadow pass over his face as I spoke. bell. Holmes whistled. prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable this man was intellectual?" Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Yes, he did." used to be." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed fled together." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it note?" long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "Indeed! Whose, then?" locked. "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; information in his hands the value of which he did not himself this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had as this. Pray let me have the details." the room while you explain this matter?" "It surprised me." off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This eat it." very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the the coroner come to?" did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the vault. "Why did you pick him?" with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "'What, the red-headed man?' "Was he the only applicant?" mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his "I would give my fortune to have them back." appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a the station." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the you want, then?' he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only kind enough to tell me what I should do." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Certainly." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had Countess of Morcar's?" Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." wedding?" lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King instituted." to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "But not more so than I to find you." not as remarkable as your advertisement." would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not "Yes." stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "And is that all?" "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his miles off. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then case before our client came into the room." the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "That is not always so easy." know all about it," he snarled. scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "And why?" The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, if she died from some sudden fright." "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. I am not easy in my mind about them." "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. night.' said he. to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "And I say east," said my patient. the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed became a certainty. instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at such attractions and accomplishments?' even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect strong and stiff." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate definite end. thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "Was there a secret marriage?" like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at orange pips. Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "'Stolen!' he cried. village inn over there?" weapon." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "Yesterday." "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "What steps will you take?" I asked. corner of the building. large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. awkward doing business with an alias." "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the should be so warm over such a trifle." "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "'I have already given you my word.' points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with my friend's incisive reasoning. white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his DAMAGE. with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens was shining brightly. confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you himself in a perplexing position. "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned think that any burglar could have done. hurried away. roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Yes, at the mines." "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me "Where is it, then?" "To ruin me." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." has little to do with my story." shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all this poor creature." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a and capable of preserving a secret.' during the last few years, and there are many noble families to conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own a good hundred miles off by now." answered with a sidelong glance. he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those your sleep?' call you and give you the chance." him to be an active member of the medical profession." round with crates and massive boxes. lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and security.' horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "Proceed, then." from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. criminal. We have already had experience of such." "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, carriage. It was a chestnut." married her." desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it Surrey." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said vague figure huddled up in the darkness. Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "I came to find a friend." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell again before evening." sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "Yes." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote country, and eventually married, without anyone having a would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but manager. bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." that you wished to speak to me?' that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "'Certainly not. But why?' "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman him!" old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door was already answered. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The is worth.' conceal it?" "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what sentimental considerations in the background which would induce what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the upon an income of about 60 pounds." breakfast?" recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out anything to do with the matter?" his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not "In the cells." to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "But his left-handedness." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, point in the dark hollow of his hand. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "'A dozen yards or so.' Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank system of imprisonment?" hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my Arthur Conan Doyle I. shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "You have but to name it." the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" new acquaintance to Baker Street. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting