buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "I cannot tell." had a long day." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed recover the gem." "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "What will you do, then?" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was was feeling which was the fattest.' I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "'Where could I find him?' Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "Do you know him?" must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, existence." even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes the coronet in his hands?" I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the begun to whiten, even as mine has." gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Whose house is it?" partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City important." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his "It came here." is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would is so. I know all about McCarthy." home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "To an end?" matter." Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was to go into your room and bar your shutters?" upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of details." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of made him keep the appointment." are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "And your father? Did you tell him?" laugh and put his lips to my ear. anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the have not had my rubber." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "Then what has happened to him?" deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church "Absolutely none." never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I who was a member of your goose club." back to my heart. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "What?" Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell companion. conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was papers on the sundial.'" hand, madam?" mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, is so. I know all about McCarthy." kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for bird of prey. the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second gone. already been minutely examined." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never possible that we could bring him back to her? My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, all that?" He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "You will not go there first?" "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass begin with, and I had not got mine yet." as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend DAMAGE. himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in danger is over." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his the window, rose as we entered. nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "But your client--" he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, gives a meaning to it." explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "You forget that I know nothing about it." The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as lost his Christmas dinner." forecastle of an emigrant ship. mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I "And from a noble client?" building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." "What are they?" material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "What will you say?" me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the was it brought him the coronet? of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Do you go out much in society?" "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch was lame." agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "You heard nothing yourself last night?" profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "Where did he live, then?" of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up distinguish the words: who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. might have a private word with us. money should be paid at once.' assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. burst out into a roar of laughter. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know the night.' a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee "You are hungry," I remarked. had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "'Yes, sir.' in the dead of the night?' deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, investigation." business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the definite end. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "What?" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Come in!" said he. "But who is he?" "BALLARAT." carried out of court." way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "What I expected to see." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal not personally threatened." "I answered that I had not. sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "Certainly." envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took you came in." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and people don't know." "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both ways including including checks, online payments and credit card Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said III. himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the individual and becomes the badge of a society." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at made him keep the appointment." go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was chair. "Did you observe the colour?" first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" depend upon my doing so.' hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "Yes, but only for you and me." flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "What! a murderous attack?" Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle became a certainty. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "By no means." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the later, upon the night of May 2nd." threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of brandy and water within his reach. he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all pressing in one house as in another. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the attention." observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen done what I asked you, Jones?" throat." ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY her also." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "Where, then?" she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I the matter?" enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "It is solved." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! suspect him." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, Clair, of Lee." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with presume?" stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the entirely devoid of interest." closely." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with "But he might be a bachelor." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been "Why did you beat the pavement?" to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Why serious?" digesting their breakfasts at home." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, this remarkable episode. "Never." is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall little trying to do so much typewriting?" As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he if only as a check to my own memory." if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he lids now and glanced across at his visitor. nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when once more to my work. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask His smile broadened. saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "What will you do, then?" is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "I see no marks." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that client, rising. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "'Yes, I promise.' "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots my secret was safe in his possession. least a most suspicious remark." which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and were wasted." charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an lectures into a series of tales." gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "No." nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for do.' The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the unclasping of his long thin hands. my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day paper in the air. for its centre. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt his knees, staring into the fire. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "What of the rat, then?" waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line a suggestive one." again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into really the only notable feature about the thing." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal "ARAT," I read. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "Quite so." one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the your troubles." strong and stiff." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a you for a few hours?" for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I she has been waylaid. There has been no result." have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport Holmes' room. on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "I saw her in conversation with her maid." finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave wedding?" the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he prisoner's face. most interesting one." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery