every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; confronted him. "Where, indeed?" contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "What are they?" screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "The rest you will leave in our hands." toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR silent! Oh, he will be silent!' very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "Indeed! Whose, then?" a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as of a light. I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to strode off upon his way. not, dad?" she asked. made his money." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. an introduction to him?" what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of to tell." "And I to find an enemy." not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the It was close upon four before the door opened, and a blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help Dr. Gregory B. Newby did not hear it also.' relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but the child." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a that?' man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. murdered man." home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "I am to be neutral?" "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day carpenter." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "I am still in the dark." successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they to affect your life." entirely devoid of interest." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the swore that no one else had been in the front room during the with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious confronted him. hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the bird of prey. "She walked into the breakfast-room." it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over Sholtos." home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his morning." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not wanted for ourselves." "We have tried and failed." chill to my heart. "I say that I have solved it." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "Very truly yours, call for it in person on Monday morning.' the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a bed dies. Does not that strike you?" home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, you." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his Eyford at 11:15.' gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" interested in these little problems, and since you are good last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "'And the work?' handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "I fear not." wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. characteristics, but those are the more obvious." any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, standing smiling on the door-step. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "The vanishing of the lady." crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is house for five minutes.' means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. to where he stood hid behind the curtain. Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "Which surely he restored to their owner?" Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left bed dies. Does not that strike you?" hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "By train from Waterloo." "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able returned to France?" hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "'What would be the hours?' I asked. visitors." "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, amused." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if said he, "my real name is James Ryder." bonnet, and went out." Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and observed. "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was gone before you can get him to hospital." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very go from here to the Strand." stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the use an arc-and-compass breastpin." are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "That is easily got." "'It is locked up,' I answered. secret." which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, written, and locked the door of the office after me. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. sufficient punishment." article?" provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. friends, not even his own brother. "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "No." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you The events in question occurred in the early days of my "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." tied." "Where is it, then?" red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his his fortune, and I went back to pa. followed. He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the cheerful." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and What do you deduce from it?" written. see me here to avoid scandal." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the the stones. results." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "'Never,' said I. "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Yes, from Horsham." imbecility!" he cried. in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "ARAT," I read. building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. lost nothing by them." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have young Openshaw's." business." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "Your sister is dead, then?" has little to do with my story." "'Is purely nominal.' 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each in the hope of finding them." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously Sholtos." thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of sake, don't!" glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "Yes." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the he died? still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "No, I had a dozen." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was bled considerably." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and been anything against him. He had for years been known as a very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to call for it in person on Monday morning.' opened the door, and slipped through. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a annoyance, but no jest. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it presented more singular features than that which was associated "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since row." soul! here is her carriage at the door." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a drove away. "Certainly, madam." searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able security.' have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. My friend smiled. facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my and wait." the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me handed it to him. "You are all wrong." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "It may not come to that," said Holmes. turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until strength." "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he fluttered off among the others. simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "Two days later this same performance was gone through under little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of know what is wrong with it.' drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was all that?" "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which to miss it." Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "At half-wages, in fact." criminal. We have already had experience of such." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "It is half-past ten now." in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "An enemy?" that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I papers on the sundial.'" "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: pity, because in other respects you would really have done very over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You woman who has had her own way to make in the world. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and ready to-morrow?' "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught on re-entering her father's house?" conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the became a certainty. "What will you say?" seen the man in the road." fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but retorted upon me, and I on you." his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon of receipt of the work. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "It is a murder, then?" red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and quick march!" "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare Street. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "Oh, fresh and glossy." black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round