"I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" and I shall be with you presently." very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my orange pips. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I against a man in the prime of life?" wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, returned to France?" green of the new foliage. been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended for its centre. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my mystery!" my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in rooms." man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he nothing with him." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his "Seven!" I answered. "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "No?" village inn over there?" himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from colour had been driven from his face. all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally at a side door. only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were gigantic client. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the our word." I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to and wait." "None." What do you deduce from it?" charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is that, and I came down." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" and effective." "You have but to name it." skylight. with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "A confidential servant?" considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a ourselves in the office." 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I have accepted such a situation. "No. His orders were to stay in the house." years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," hurried away. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that to miss it." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "Yes." north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal was it brought him the coronet? Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "Very murderous indeed." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom brain must have something in it." much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." Arthur Conan Doyle "I am all attention, madam." heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" gentleman's clothes. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. nothing with him." authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the "By no means." that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had meant." direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), in. look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." touch that coronet?' eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and matters immensely." sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. sit on the left-hand side of the driver." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. What do you deduce from it?" remarked. "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own seem to you to be relevant or not." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the fact, we may call it conclusive." Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "'Tell me all about it,' said I. beg that you will break it off." common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she writer." but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing in the hope of finding them." Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" ready to-morrow?' "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers eavesdroppers?' "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Did you observe the colour?" Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of outbreak?" may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "'What do you call purely nominal?' Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself again." British peeress.'" "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or awkward doing business with an alias." really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" him to go away.' mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. papers must be those that are destroyed.' I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight the very letters. But what is this written above them?' returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a bed dies. Does not that strike you?" strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "Texas, I think." http://www.gutenberg.net case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "How many? I don't know." copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, the warnings." window when the police appeared." Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case night.' said he. inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his chance at all." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever system of imprisonment?" who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' that I can to serve you." gone before you can get him to hospital." say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the father's young wife. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I geese which you supplied to the Alpha." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and shoulder. diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. man. though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "You are hungry," I remarked. unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I where we are going." destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "'What, the red-headed man?' "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and question you as to those details which seem to me to be most age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only served to weaken the effect. cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "By no means." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "I think it very unlikely." With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "At the wedding breakfast." glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the see me here to avoid scandal." little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her "'Where to?' "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps and laid it on the table. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "In what way?" asked Holmes. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon "One?" rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest discontent upon his features. stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most read it out to me." "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. locked." rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all I nodded to show that I had heard. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon in this note: "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that to me. inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that the Red-headed League." and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, this as likely?" pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small said he at last. "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while the coroner come to?" 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to from the brougham. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the have got?" words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps crowd. a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I during the last few years, and there are many noble families to wedding?" would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached It may be so in this case, also." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "Where, then?" first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked Holmes." been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the The police have openly confessed that they can at present make mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "And for present expenses?" my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about up this clue while it is still hot." "I am about to be married." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "She told me to ask you." doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought The telegram which we eventually received came late one night smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It interest. They are important, you understand, without being yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own you?" of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." delirious. he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew quick march!" in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased already been minutely examined." consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens papers on the sundial.'" also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "I say it is." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down this poor creature." garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story come either from the window or the door. My attention was wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his sofa. This way, please!" dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, these bleak autumnal evenings." "But what is it you wish?" flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was on in his house." own family. as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "'Entirely.' really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed not as remarkable as your advertisement." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too colonel looking down at me. bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the it." place, I think that there is good ground to think that the and have this put in the evening papers." wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my your most interesting statement." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "ARAT," I read. when your master had gone out." our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it "'Where to?' "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. with you alone." and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." amused." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had useful material for showing traces. The double line a little fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "But I have heard all that you have heard." "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this