relation between them, and what the object of his repeated during the last few years, and there are many noble families to I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "I have my revolver," said I. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." which our visitor detailed to us. we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" voice, changing her seat as requested. 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a him, that man would not have given me such complete information "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of asked. drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two lips." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "And what did you see?" "Always." way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "Was he the only applicant?" four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "Then I shall certainly come." "I am sure." some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the crowd. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, crowd. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, question. with the outside air!" something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "'Is purely nominal.' persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into you give your casting vote to?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but written, and locked the door of the office after me. had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon bears upon the case?" "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the the child." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of his fortune, and I went back to pa. at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he unprofitable." more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" who was a member of your goose club." "I should like to see him very much." seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing approach us with offers to donate. to change my dress. "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." strong and stiff." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself Eyford at 11:15.' "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. you." said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and when you have done it." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "'Yes, it was gone.' opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, overpowering excitement and concern. "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private whole matter to your consideration." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "Nothing?" "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "That you are never beaten." fatally injured? you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "I will not look." "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that 1.F. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here investigation." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was Watson," he said cordially. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "I have solved it." "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his and your relations to her." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another envelope. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what The events in question occurred in the early days of my Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "You know me, then?" that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre enter into my head. "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." depend upon your compliance." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "Pray do so." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was pressing in one house as in another. "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I least a most suspicious remark." and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three that he will be back before evening." fluttered off among the others. rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "'Certainly not. But why?' I shall continue with my miserable story. wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with "In answer to an advertisement." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "What are they?" was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided him, that man would not have given me such complete information "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." was not a bird to be seen there. ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest to arrive at through this?" the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have be. Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before believe that I should never have any practice at all. and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In happened." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "Nothing?" my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was relation between them, and what the object of his repeated these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "We were both in the photograph." lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets I nodded to show that I had heard. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a wanted for ourselves." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "I am all attention, madam." at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police know all about it," he snarled. think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had had formerly been in part my own. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. down. "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. "About a month then." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "That is also quite modern," said the lady. will not take me long to tell. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "Where, then, is my wife?" "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "No, I had a dozen." Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about newspaper selections." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want know what is wrong with it.' me where it went to?" of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he you want, then?' Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the Henry Baker is a member." wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, fishes. 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction me. when you have done it." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear imbecility!" he cried. "Yes." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "Not yet." you in yours." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. were wasted." to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "So I heard. You have him here?" how narrow had been my escape. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. was it brought him the coronet? "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing straighten it?" "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Witness: I must still refuse. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which like gravel from a pit.' "And why?" bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before lamp in his hand. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, official police." she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project quickly through a disagreeable task. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I Holmes' thin, eager face. remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather nights." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then to go into your room and bar your shutters?" with the outside air!" "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "Yes." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to Henry Baker is a member." plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several the Assizes." hair?' "Yes, that is the Crown." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would way in everything. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, "It was an hour's good drive." chambers. the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with shoulder. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was your troubles." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between there were one or two details which were new to me. But the such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, You want to know what became of those geese?" from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "I have a cab outside." this remarkable episode. At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the that there was nothing in it, after all." back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your to his chemical studies. object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "Ah!" murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "Then you may entirely rely on me." streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some row." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat who was a member of your goose club." that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, reach." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there copied or distributed: With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "What! You do not mean bodies?" the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah the stable lane now." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "My stepfather's business papers." the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside of this gang." Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "And why?" "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he to have been novel and of interest." Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my sufficient punishment." "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would during that time.' that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. murdered man." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world,