"It goes to the housekeeper's room." week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something did not hear it also.' much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. note?" now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' gives a meaning to it." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical envelope. (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "That is it on the dressing-table." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress "And did you observe any change in her then?" the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are have one." hurried away. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that main points of my analysis." "A confidential servant?" signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran money should be paid at once.' paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from "Nor running a chance of arrest?" Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the existence." I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "Yes." name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "So I heard. You have him here?" "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I and no precautions can guard against." prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "Yes." American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the pressing in one house as in another. "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the rose-bushes. that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "Witness: I must still refuse. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "It's nothing of the kind." Have you good authority for what you say?" drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "How did he come?" a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become despaired of." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "It is true that I have been generally successful." "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense investigation." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "No, finished." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a It was close upon four before the door opened, and a after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For The King stared at him in amazement. the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "You think that he is dead?" 1.E.9. a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to existence." "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and 'I should be able to look after that for you.' must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in "'Ten to two.' of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts my secret was safe in his possession. same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even four million human beings all jostling each other within the Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? excitement. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "His face fell immediately. corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "'Is purely nominal.' petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when Pope's Court. "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. the matter." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. and it need not interfere very much with one's other which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no the child." other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security question you as to those details which seem to me to be most could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would foot. pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. 'please.'" directly by questioning you." sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. way in." light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "And now?" I asked. and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "By train from Waterloo." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "How long did she speak to this Alice?" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "And how in the world did you find them?" effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were I leave." fait accompli?" now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, fatally injured? Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. despair." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could Holmes. the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in examine." solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "'Most admirably.' practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "The King of Scandinavia." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, geese which you supplied to the Alpha." has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more putting in the horse. "But you would not advise me to refuse?" business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact to-night?" I asked. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "And you can do nothing until then?" "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was go--none." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it few hundred pounds.' the stones. were new raised from a basin. On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." his huge brown hands. ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client coroner's jury." afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. chill to my heart. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear Again Holmes raved in the air. outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "How did you trace it, then?" Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered said he at last. did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a my former friend and companion. "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "So I have heard." speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "To ruin me." comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "What do you mean?" lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have clang of the bell. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he away in different directions, and I went off to make my own window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our examination of the premises, but without finding anything which than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting that he has suffered." "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, matter over." he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "'And the work?' chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets before, for it was considerably after midnight. since then to throw any light upon what became of him." rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and house for five minutes.' given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that eavesdroppers?' he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his see me here to avoid scandal." the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, me have 200 pounds?' "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point pity, because in other respects you would really have done very the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an woman." "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of like gravel from a pit.' on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "That's no good." the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "And sit in the dark?" front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of hair?' Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may signal between you and your father? Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different "Get out!" said he. once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me you." used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed it." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, notes," he said. public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to becomes even more simple." and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, at my remark. breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "Has he come with you to-night?" "You heard nothing yourself last night?" without success. At last the little money which I had saved began Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried habit of advancing money.' precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His "What! Had he lost his wife?" as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when heavily into it. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." carried out of court." previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to coroner's jury." on in his house." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "Won't it ring?" "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about quick march!" husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the been anything against him. He had for years been known as a Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He friends, not even his own brother. the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob Serpentine Avenue. "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking My friend smiled. "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "Game for a morning drive?" defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." all?" "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." ready to-morrow?' and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back beg that you will break it off." a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers know what is wrong with it.' The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is him." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture will take you up to see the machine.' place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the For additional contact information: paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the hair?' Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was kindly on the shoulder. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "Yes?" "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened on in his house." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your burst out into a roar of laughter. "'Very good.' interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by prison!" unclasping of his long thin hands. friend's singular character. vault. is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door that you wished to speak to me?'