"I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that front of me. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few of receipt of the work. "Texas, I think." as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears memory. the coroner come to?" "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off "'It is locked up,' I answered. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for the very morning of the wedding." enough to aid us in our search." but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a For additional contact information: seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Was he the only applicant?" breakfast?" by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "But how?" princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his fishes. Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from again on its way. all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, hand, madam?" from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in Eyford." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a out of this horrible affair." Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has could not have written that. It is the German who is so away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the "I don't say that. Perhaps." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, plantation.' wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. she used." least a fellow-countryman. "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to DAMAGE. "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled you." the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a Literary Archive Foundation even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two to have that photograph." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "No good news?" in. asked with his eyes open. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this voice, changing her seat as requested. "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" held up the lantern and gazed about him. been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "Well, it is a possible supposition." his grey eyes. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face of the way of danger. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, voice. at home. occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "I should be immensely obliged to you." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "Seven!" I answered. "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." once more for Briony Lodge. particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "To ruin me." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by companion. "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which you for a few hours?" "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and crackling voice. hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make than to us. "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The would apply.' places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his once more for Briony Lodge. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you "Did he not advertise?" "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, returning from some small jollification and was making his way "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to up this clue while it is still hot." until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "Then he might have called to you?" the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "Stolen, then." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these kind enough to tell me what I should do." will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an the night.' "But it has twice been burgled." minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as knowledge of the world." the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to License. You must require such a user to return or and glanced through. "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked your only hope of safety." call the police, let the police find what they can.' those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the father's young wife. grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "I say it is." conceal it?" he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," cheerful." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." everything which you would wish to know." were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom better in every way that they should make their position a little young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "Well." laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' "Is he quiet?" enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, do." country, and eventually married, without anyone having a obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in situation." once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and passage and a tap at the door. he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "You did not overhear what they said?" abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses the nursery. been with you?" "Upon what point?" took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every Foundation "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and Pool. fait accompli?" nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average and a shock of very red hair. together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." remarked. in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." nothing with him." felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "It may not come to that," said Holmes. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point singular points about the case. What did the police think of the plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "But we can't all be." expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "Of what day?" come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. guilty one." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions off." what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a she might be summoned. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time had died away into the silence from which it rose. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "I am sure." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped joking. "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the noble correspondent could be. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "What then?" find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had already referred to. firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his been shamefully used." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. late!' heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "Not in a good cause." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "'About the same.' very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he detained." Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" is so. I know all about McCarthy." in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began "It may not come to that," said Holmes. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "My last client of the sort was a king." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know clang of the bell. and no precautions can guard against." world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were you give your casting vote to?" to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "I am in hopes that she does." the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me some water from a caraffe. deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can of his shoulders. he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of guilty one." the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the over here." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their DISSOLVED. was a perfect sample of the class. trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both been deceived." indeed which he could not unravel. remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "And that is--" that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of business?" "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "Ah, but I was recommended to you." very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good points to suicide?" "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked your room." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "'What do you call purely nominal?' young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, "What can it mean?" I gasped. something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "And the cigar-holder?" nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own children over to America with him, so that I found myself without there!' furiously. "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." name is different." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the "So I heard. You have him here?" "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly his cane at the bell-pull. not within a twentieth part of the market price." you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil at once, for I have only half an hour." "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we "Stoke Moran?" said he. to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "But we can't all be." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended ago." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you chemical work which was so dear to him. league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that