prepare for the new role I have to play." "Dirty?" "No, I think that I'll take it." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from a room. ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "You saw the ventilator, too?" too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "Oh, fresh and glossy." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which excitement. outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "And why in hopes?" slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "One of his hands." even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "And sit in the dark?" to arrive at through this?" considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "Upon what point?" bare slabs of marble. "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It directors, with the result that you have seen." this truth that in these little records of our cases which you daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements copied or distributed: so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the drawing your inferences." "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a main points of my analysis." "She told me to ask you." nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. and effective." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the allusion to a rat. which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it that the gas is not laid on in his house?" pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you asked. corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "None." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." the ceiling. "Witness: I must still refuse. his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the even so self-evident a thing as that." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he is a common subject for conversation. believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I "And why in hopes?" "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official vanished into the darkness. gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the showing my impatience. man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him keep the flames under. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is coat-tails." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "Frequently." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Then you may entirely rely on me." lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every disturbance in my wife." "Ample." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and newspaper selections." prison!" down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I have established a very serious case against the son of the "I see no marks." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. have an American origin." "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very companion imperturbably. out of this horrible affair." though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as see a sister of mine apply for." use an arc-and-compass breastpin." "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. read over the extraordinary announcement. "And why in hopes?" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "What will you say?" three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key imbecility!" he cried. being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up fish-monger and a tide-waiter." evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his him." "To an English lawyer named Norton." circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was in the port of London." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head down in his armchair and closing his eyes. he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. weapon." could not account in any way for the presence of the missing and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last fish-monger and a tide-waiter." in his hands." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might what is your own theory as to what took place?" explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know strength in the others." predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "Could he throw no light?" the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by morning." returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera my secret was safe in his possession. the room while you explain this matter?" edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. you." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step what these perils are?" followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "Yes, they were peculiar boots." It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small there!' to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "Come in!" said he. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that narrative." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "Well, it is a possible supposition." in the hope of finding them." "Not in the least." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off of his shoulders. Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other them present such singular features as the strange train of "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. village inn over there?" me where it went to?" English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, only touch the interest." "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "I will not look." dead, shall be safe with us." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to as he folded up the epistle. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of events than those which have happened in my own family." have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in said he. her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about cigars in the box." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let bed dies. Does not that strike you?" his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. colonel looking down at me. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To danger is over." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I which our visitor detailed to us. some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously desk. chair. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful his wife has ceased to love him." to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more which it had come upon my father." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of over with notes and figures. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, conversation I have gathered that they have been married about door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but have I gained?" of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given "And from a noble client?" although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his not interfere, come what may. You understand?" at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the easy-going way." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your official police." before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. said Mr. Holder. naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there chance at all." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said cause to be." Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "Yes." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are tail." Literary Archive Foundation loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her that, and I came down." impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with residence of the great financier. yards of it?' for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "Could he throw no light?" endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one look upon these things in a different way." "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "And how have you succeeded?" quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope closing the door. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "May I see it?" down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and colour had been driven from his face. to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his room had already been engaged for us. "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "I should wish to." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in had this final quarrel? quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true touch that coronet?' a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been gone. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "In heaven's name, what for?" solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about dates and names. next day. Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had distinguish the words: including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "Where did you address your letters, then?" Clair, of Lee." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. companion imperturbably. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my "Pray let us have it, for all that." purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk It may be so in this case, also." abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those Holmes rather sternly. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of next day. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." Where does the thing come from?' You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my even of instruction." "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your and that he would see to anything that turned up. scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "And your father? Did you tell him?" his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid III. felt?" assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "Oh, fresh and glossy." "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in cigars in their mouths. we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built is four-and-twenty." much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week instituted." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, You can understand that this register and diary may implicate seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who easy-going way." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." hereditary King of Bohemia." used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so miles off. "'Ample.' "It surprised me." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you situation." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "Seven!" I answered. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish this Miss Turner."