most important business. It is probable that he will be away all lips." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "She will not sell." "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "Then, as to money?" sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "None. Neville wrote those words." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "But how?" "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the weary and pale-looking. vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." conduct the inquiry." "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "How do you know, then?" "What, then?" of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was his wife has ceased to love him." have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two sneer upon his pale face. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a criminal. We have already had experience of such." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "I assure you that I am in your hands." "But he might be a bachelor." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has horse could go." "What of the rat, then?" Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no take the flies, but not before." "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad disturbance in my wife." Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, important." "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since do." kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we "The doctor?" business matters.' incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly matters immensely." or in danger--" jewels which you have stolen?' and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "His face fell immediately. it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. towards the blaze. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this face and glided from the room. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of drove away. The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out them?" Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my what do you think they found in the pockets?" We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "They are typewritten," I remarked. finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, with you?" for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "I should wish to." informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "I am to be neutral?" did not hear it also.' occurred." "What, then, did Peterson do?" so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it "Never." find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I and the whole place is in a blaze." not personally threatened." sneer upon his pale face. works. See paragraph 1.E below. the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall gone. Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." thirty. company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either my friend's incisive reasoning. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was was keenly on my guard against him. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he and the colonel ushered me in. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, any." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it upon a handsome competence. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' purpose of examination. what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "May I see it?" a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else details." key of the affair now." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that as noiselessly as she had come. "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with coroner's jury." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "And it is--" It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "Only as much as we can deduce." never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "No." then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. do you make of it all?" vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "Nor running a chance of arrest?" rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "ARAT," I read. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "It may not come to that," said Holmes. Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "And how?" you in your example." orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. will he say when he returns?" the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." definite end. unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "Yes, the wine-cellar." evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and once more to my work. money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just the nursery. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "Perhaps we may make them less so." It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "No." however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or one's self under obligations.' weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "Get out!" said he. "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The to his chemical studies. the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently fasten all the windows?" "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would business in the City. She little knew what. theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. where we are going." matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "I would give my fortune to have them back." providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was colour had been driven from his face. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "But he might be a bachelor." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for be there in time for your coming." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the there." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "It certainly sounds feasible." "And how?" quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do you." salesman. "That is it on the dressing-table." solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have pictures, libraries, or plate. in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "To the police?" "I don't believe it." mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the asked with his eyes open. "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." fattened it expressly for you.' "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "Could he throw no light?" seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked was the fact that his father should, according to his account, "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, "Nearly eleven." which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "I should like to see him very much." seem to you to be relevant or not." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was up this clue while it is still hot." "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do meanly of me." my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face invisible to me," I remarked. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just will be renamed. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "There are none." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and already referred to. "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Well?" "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "What will you do, then?" many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." note?" last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "To an end?" Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door charged with?" crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "Upon what point?" this Miss Turner." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a said I. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "You know me, then?" wanted for ourselves." The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that his fortune, and I went back to pa. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they so.' "And how?" "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "Stolen." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done companion. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have about. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "The King of Scandinavia." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "And how in the world did you find them?" judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the on re-entering her father's house?" beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, suspect him." There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the so.' master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Yesterday." situation." matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house place no limit on the sum I may draw." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "Were they all fastened this morning?"