suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was It was close upon four before the door opened, and a room. office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "But we can't all be." had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" the house with me." helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek that threaten you." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "It is his hat." speckled band?" legal crime." classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "Yes, it was twisted." rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "Nothing." outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must my special province." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "But he might be a bachelor." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "Indeed! Whose, then?" need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name means taking possession of that which another person has a prior front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "The knees of his trousers." number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "I cannot tell." defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and of receipt of the work. the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. touch that coronet?' "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have not interfere, come what may. You understand?" The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "I will try. What is it?" "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation do." another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the Lestrade of Scotland Yard." come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that you in your example." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever the coronet at all injured?" "And I say east," said my patient. black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "Yes, certainly." congratulate you again." forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "In the cells." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an British peeress.'" "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered Does that suggest anything?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by The events in question occurred in the early days of my whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we for and were ordered to this address. analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless strength of mind to control. "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you walking." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "You will not go there first?" vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but outbreak?" "When did it break out?" "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been maiden herself was most instructive." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "Where to?" Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by sound at heart." him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Very truly yours, "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "It is true that I have been generally successful." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Well." happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. "Was the window open?" awaited us upon the table. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "Never." "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, the station." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "But your client--" following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round said he, "my real name is James Ryder." there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. true." transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Married! When?" "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it handed it to him. correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to maid will bring up your coffee." bird of prey. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying in this note: money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case "I am sure." slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "I will try. What is it?" the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me all?" About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. wall." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I started for the Temple to see my husband. acted in my house last night?" "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "We must sit without light. He would see it through the red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, brandy and water within his reach. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "I assure you that I am in your hands." Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "How on earth--" sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "My dear Holmes!" sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely look upon these things in a different way." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I whereabouts. Heh?' "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman strange features which were associated with the two crimes which dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which lamp in his hand. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord him." "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." unclasping of his long thin hands. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "But she will refuse." which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my hair?' cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can more terrible than the truth. rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "I have hopes." reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set ran thus: the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his relation between them, and what the object of his repeated and prosperity to your house. Good-night." seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted future lives." "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is since then to throw any light upon what became of him." news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "'Why that?' I asks. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "But you would not advise me to refuse?" side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It papers." have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "What then?" believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly do." is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that ways of our fellow-men." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Ha! you find it so?" to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at confronted him. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "I think that it is very probable." what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second said he. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you His name is Francis Prosper." "And what did you learn from him?" down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have went to the Alpha were town bred." The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of present." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled the date of his supposed suicide." "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to the room while you explain this matter?" only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' the morning and make my own way in the world.' card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped papers." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a "My stepfather's business papers." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded both be extremely obliged.' "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been and it need not interfere very much with one's other fatally injured? Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I From what you have told me I think that it is possible that analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery affection." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated very morning of my second wedding." 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My directly by questioning you." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "I should like to see him very much." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "Yes." course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's bled considerably." astonishment. "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, charge against him will break down." Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this III. He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a conceal it?" o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "Did you become engaged then?" endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to "To ruin me." large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "You saw the ventilator, too?" made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, the house with me." India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of the ceiling. that I am arrested." but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had was a perfect sample of the class. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and would then never go into court at all." "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such