License. You must require such a user to return or once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "Murdered?" smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to becomes even more simple." SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any she might be summoned. my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began foresight and the moral retrogression?" "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the get the tickets." "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard undoubtedly my uncle's." the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands may never be exposed to such a temptation." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual room had already been engaged for us. "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. "I cannot as yet see any connection." "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a impression behind it as though a window had gently closed to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "To an end?" "Entirely." some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. have been better. It is all right." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running you in yours." going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "Never." with the outside air!" and capable of preserving a secret.' iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real mysterious business." man. I know him from the photograph." the very letters. But what is this written above them?' Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "I have my revolver," said I. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "You horrify me!" I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "And why?" question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "There is the writing." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are Sutherland. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." bird I ate is country bred." ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting goes." the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" once more on the important position which you have been fortunate that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He had a long day." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was papers." sentimental considerations in the background which would induce were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "Nothing?" brain must have something in it." "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it feature." the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. fat-encircled eyes. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. may have an influence upon European history." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little promised to bring home. "Then I am your man." "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "You don't mind breaking the law?" and I shall be with you presently." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies more solid." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just thin, with a long, sharp nose?" as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, head. So long, then!" ago." "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. in a friendly supper." "Has he come with you to-night?" empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "No." the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated the house with me." Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how prove to be little relation between the different incidents of hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "She told me to ask you." though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your that there was nothing in it, after all." to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the them, and came down just as you departed. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "A greater distance to travel." "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "Entirely." over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same as he folded up the epistle. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a business." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord he bowed and left the room without another word. room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "When did it break out?" "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I tear off another piece?' and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this I shall communicate with you." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. was not a bird to be seen there. Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge point in the dark hollow of his hand. the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "To an end?" recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "You were travelling in the States?" have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, me. You must get home instantly and act." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his papers." in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "We were both in the photograph." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Eh? What was that?" "Was she in good spirits?" Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "But to whom?" "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a breakfast?" round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that over his head with a sweet womanly caress. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too will be renamed. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, he died? ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the must be when I saw the door open.' room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of not, dad?" she asked. but preventing her from injuring another. nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. will he say when he returns?" several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. Lee, in the county of Kent." "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from weighed down with some great anxiety. statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to companion. connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "'Entirely.' "Ample." DAMAGE. responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the made him keep the appointment." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "Oh, the cause is excellent!" of receipt of the work. any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "Then, as to money?" have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "No, my brougham is waiting." the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." discontent upon his features. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "But you would not advise me to refuse?" One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very started for the Temple to see my husband. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable wedding?" particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I thin, with a long, sharp nose?" very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I this man was intellectual?" dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the Eyford at 11:15.' "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few lamp in his hand. eavesdroppers?' bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham Eyford." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We was a perfect sample of the class. "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, soul! here is her carriage at the door." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should garden below. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble that the gas is not laid on in his house?" seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over said Mr. Holder. the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite matter over." the loss of it. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Never to return." "Very murderous indeed." present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must paper in the air. "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use the night.' used to be." tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely I think that I could be of assistance to you." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "9th. McCauley cleared. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "Absolutely?" "No. His orders were to stay in the house." We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do to take care of herself." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "How are you getting on?" them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "Yes, all." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself the little opening for the ventilator is." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It generous with you in money matters.' "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone was once confined in the cab my mission was practically anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "If so, much may have happened between." if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." one or two very singular points about this room. For example, me. villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up to you." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular "But it has twice been burgled." "Why serious?" gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "I will, Miss Turner." friend's singular character. but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his future lives." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there crowd. "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between