of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and never will be, entirely cleared up. hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been the armchair which I pushed forward for him. appointment with me for six o'clock?" own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is said I. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "There are none." encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark weary and pale-looking. "BALLARAT." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "Here?" "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he simple cases which are so extremely difficult." Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "It is possible." Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up most interesting one." middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek it with his own hands." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' God! What an exposure! What can I do?" Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a noble correspondent could be. been shamefully used." "This concluded the examination of the witness." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let seen the man in the road." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "'No, I know no one in these parts.' nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day his cane at the bell-pull. bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "There are none." discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "No." had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name your equipment. also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is enough to aid us in our search." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the to Leatherhead. at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. to his chemical studies. seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP row." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress McCarthy's innocence. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his south, for the country is more deserted there." of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "And I to find an enemy." "Nor running a chance of arrest?" was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "The best possible." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "On your arm?" "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so again." down from London to inquire more deeply into it." must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled in darkness. "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to situation." quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" once more to my work. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "Where did you address your letters, then?" congratulate you again." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to careless servant girl?" a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed Project Gutenberg-tm works. but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the whether it answered to the description of any of their that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured matter over." "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "And you don't know his address?" "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for the devil!" former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs both be extremely obliged.' to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his congenial hunt. used to be." Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "It was a confession," I ejaculated. affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "It is very kind of you." said I. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" what is your own theory as to what took place?" down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I the iron safe, which he closed upon it. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, begin with, and I had not got mine yet." lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never help us in this matter." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every fled together." shoulder; "he's all right." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' and have this put in the evening papers." "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is My friend smiled. "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew to Leatherhead. as he folded up the epistle. away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "That is unusual in a young girl." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "How often?" "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "That is easily got." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "That sounds a little paradoxical." address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his Heh?' right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." that, and I came down." front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. evidence," I remarked. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "On Monday." Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. hereditary King of Bohemia." round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the in darkness. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "He might." Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." Lestrade of Scotland Yard." wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a following enigmatical notices: engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught the side-table." and your relations to her." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit you." with you alone." it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." anything to do with the matter?" turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "But she could not love him." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his him. dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you village inn over there?" "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow that he will be back before evening." "Why, what do you mean?" very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was late!' some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "No, my brougham is waiting." other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "'Stolen!' he cried. success. unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the said he at last. lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs conclusions. the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "Absolutely none." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "Then I can wait in the next room." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. speckled band?" kind enough to tell me what I should do." "I will, Miss Turner." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry his grey eyes. dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "'I shall certainly be there.' the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to point in the dark hollow of his hand. devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able constraint." shaken than I had ever seen him. shag which I had seen upon the previous night. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in that there was nothing in it, after all." from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a than to us. wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "I shall most certainly do so." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him again, where I was soon asleep. "No?" know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not furiously. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "He might." "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "There are none." "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "Where did you address your letters, then?" "'It is locked up,' I answered. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "The best possible." The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, "'Certainly,' I answered. preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "They are typewritten," I remarked. at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it should be so warm over such a trifle." explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "That sounds a little paradoxical." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "I have solved it." corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "'Why that?' I asks. newspaper selections." hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came in my life." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out maiden herself was most instructive." "None. Neville wrote those words." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. "Your French gold?" gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is been lifted and conveyed somewhere." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very whether it answered to the description of any of their "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking she might be summoned. The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" quickly through a disagreeable task. seem to you to be relevant or not." tapping his fingers upon the table. over part of the map. "What do you read?" and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some towards the blaze. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "No sign of it?" The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of fasten all the windows?" much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "Not in the least." "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be correct than the official force." that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, you." IS address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come at my own good fortune. London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which fire. You quite follow me?" me." stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the