"No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and read it out to me." rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that could not have written that. It is the German who is so and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It had a long day." the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "Is he quiet?" The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out is entirely a question of barometric pressure." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Why? What do you mean?" me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "I do." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "Yes." "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "And what did you learn from him?" "But the mystery?" least a most suspicious remark." begin with, and I had not got mine yet." sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' it." full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you entirely lost his self-respect." "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." young Openshaw's." know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have system of imprisonment?" bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the papers on the sundial.'" Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you in his power. to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you "And from a noble client?" the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country vague figure huddled up in the darkness. gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, the child." have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must tassel actually lying upon the pillow. imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "Well." "It is possible." cheerful." hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "But how?" confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "My dear Holmes!" "In heaven's name, what for?" INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at to-night?' no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come was the fact that his father should, according to his account, Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, legal crime." "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "What have you to say now?" I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his knowledge of the world." he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush of Fenchurch Street." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. nonsense.' old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land standing smiling on the door-step. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "He said too much." "The Coroner: What do you mean? whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. people in all walks of life. in this note: very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is question," said Holmes, smiling. them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "I should wish to." settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the him. words came to my lips. happened." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, instincts rose up against that laugh. I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "What is it?" such attractions and accomplishments?' without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as stalked out of the room. unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a strode off upon his way. fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "Dirty?" 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "I know where it is." will find little credit to be gained out of this case." specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on front of the hall door has given its name to the place. son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was skylight. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going read over the extraordinary announcement. it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It cheerful." yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did there in twenty minutes." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their said he, "my real name is James Ryder." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her young Openshaw's." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "Quite so. She has her freedom." black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated you, my dear young lady?' either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "Was the window open?" mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "You have but to name it." wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the the nursery. down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't at a side door. problems help me to do so." papers." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the one else, I think." cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "Married! When?" "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the once more on the important position which you have been fortunate matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "No sign of it?" "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. seen the man in the road." of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this that I am arrested." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with do you make of it all?" "It is very clear." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my passage and a tap at the door. gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the him!" "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this cost them two and thirty pounds." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "Breckinridge is his name." Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "I should be immensely obliged to you." the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "I think that it is very probable." the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." was the fact that his father should, according to his account, Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had silent! Oh, he will be silent!' took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before fatally injured? "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, shag which I had seen upon the previous night. in my life." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "I see many objections to any such theory." Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "How often?" suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began shoulder; "he's all right." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have charged with?" everything which you would wish to know." It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford second." "And you thought he was pulled back?" envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." in your London, you will know that the office of the company is from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were locked. in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the you understand?" inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a "I cannot imagine." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is of the efforts of the United States government and of the better the King without delay." yourselves in at night?" the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. about here speaks of his kindness to him." the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in quickly through a disagreeable task. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I "Well?" Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat "But what harm can there be in that?" round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time front of me. sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "And the murderer?" him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "What steps will you take?" I asked. access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "No more words. Get out!" "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has despaired of." buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "I think that I had better go, Holmes." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "You forget that I know nothing about it." have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "Dr. Becher's." always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my to take care of herself." undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "By train from Waterloo." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "You think so, too?" Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Why, it's a dummy," said he. arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. been able to understand it, in a very few words. wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little late." exactly what you advise." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. the bottom.' hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we fled together." interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of Street. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in fear." the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of flock.' adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced mystery." "You did not overhear what they said?" recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into even of instruction." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of is," said he presently: never to learn it at all." St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "She will not sell." arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "I cannot say that I have." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out closing the door. threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "Yes." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about miles off. subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the gone. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let guilty one." four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the been lifted and conveyed somewhere." greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "You have the photograph?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the breakfast?" this truth that in these little records of our cases which you some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "I cannot tell." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "No legal papers or certificates?" waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another since then to throw any light upon what became of him." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "Yes, it would be as well." "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any