But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "'How far from the body?' another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "Of what day?" once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was walking." "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "That sounds a little paradoxical." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on keep the flames under. "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you handed it to him. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until me what he had done with the three missing stones. will be renamed. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see distinguish the words: "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "In what way?" asked Holmes. points to suicide?" "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have national property. I was determined that the law should have its before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction kindly on the shoulder. after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go excitement. "'Not at all. I only doubt--' the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is sit on the left-hand side of the driver." pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause memory. article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him purpose of examination. "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the the general public were present, then?" one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite evidence," I remarked. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips could not have written that. It is the German who is so "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the his forehead." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall ordinary clothes on?" business matters.' his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from as he remarks, very much against the son." "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father that you wished to speak to me?' comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your thought that she would have been so carried away." cigar and let me expound." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn he died? for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "But how did you gain them?" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a learned something! Where are the gems?" soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to wedding?" observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "But it has twice been burgled." league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me your Highness to the police-station?" slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon if I call to-morrow?" "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that pound a week." "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "To the police?" me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew compunction about shooting them down." "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander the best of training." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are bedroom door." at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or the King without delay." be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "But she could not love him." Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was paper in the air. "And you don't know his address?" and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the than was visible to me." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the galvanised. January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "That's no good." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone one's self under obligations.' questioning and rather startled gaze. scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary The events in question occurred in the early days of my suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet some mystery and the punishment of some crime." passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss third from London." "Nothing." Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a girl said." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "VIOLET HUNTER." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "Oh, yes, easily." important." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, an introduction to him?" that?' few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my felt the room to be a little close.' "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of and your relations to her." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would Eyford." Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal straightened it out again. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all bird of prey. and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "My dear Holmes!" our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the woman." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from figure." "Then what has happened to him?" finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." there!' solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our emerged. you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, Street. wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City has little to do with my story." should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered "You horrify me." power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his clang of the bell. the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his Eyford." learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I Surrey." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." possible that we could bring him back to her? wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, to-night." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "What are they?" the salesman. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. American. Then who could this American be, and why should he him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow it means?" over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when will be renamed. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "What can you not understand?" blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "BALLARAT." but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "It was." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "I cannot say that I have." Lee, in the county of Kent." Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "And why in hopes?" stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a charge against him will break down." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was "How can you tell that?" stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a strength in the others." not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their papers on the sundial.'" became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in used to be." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, "And why?" secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "How long did she speak to this Alice?" have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "I say that I have solved it." Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "It is solved." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses I approached. "Was she in good spirits?" The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress time." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "Could he throw no light?" puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, trying to your nerves." My friend smiled. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "But what will you do?" prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true disturbance in my wife." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about appeared upon the scene." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector spark where all is dark to me." "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. breakfast." tell him that I know him to be innocent." latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Whose house is it?" will be renamed. very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "She will not sell." black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where Lee, in the county of Kent." "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "I came to find a friend." in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must come either from the window or the door. My attention was Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it paper in the air. planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while me. You must get home instantly and act." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, breakfast?" done what I asked you, Jones?" result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear his cane at the bell-pull. pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who closing the door. though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the heavily into it. once more. "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "10th. John Swain cleared. beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "It missed him, then?" stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about asked. desk. never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "And from a noble client?" hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "Have you it here?" written, and locked the door of the office after me. I. "'Certainly not. But why?'