the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "Certainly, madam." to that open window." envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "He is still with you, I presume?" "One of his hands." which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "I cannot tell." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window them present such singular features as the strange train of "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "But not more so than I to find you." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he arms and began to sob in a high treble key. thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it tightly behind him. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the hair?' in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the "Your sister is dead, then?" husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning true." "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, look upon these things in a different way." you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of south, for the country is more deserted there." serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the matter." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards suspect him." "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned of the one which your family is now devouring." brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "'And what are they worth?' I asked. tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "'What then?' I asked. lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "'I am sure if I had known--' course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been society." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in have had none more fantastic than this." if I call to-morrow?" you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." forebodings. man. know all about it," he snarled. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would with you alone." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some was a lad." his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "'Stolen!' he cried. tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her is four-and-twenty." the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something peculiar to him. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his ran thus: "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, ordinary clothes on?" rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from carriage. It was a chestnut." power." warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, empty. something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room Holmes. confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "Did he not advertise?" "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. in a very precise fashion." if I call to-morrow?" meant it for the best. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and occurred." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "No bad?" even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to License. You must require such a user to return or people in all walks of life. as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "May I see it?" strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing a room. thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable there was no need for father to know." "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, intrusion of other matters." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. and wait." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "I was sure that I might rely on you." In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom against a man in the prime of life?" face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "Awake, Watson?" he asked. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" place no limit on the sum I may draw." when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate before, for it was considerably after midnight. Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by returned to France?" "What! a murderous attack?" "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, ourselves in the office." "That is possible." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." that I can to serve you." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "I say it is." possible that we could bring him back to her? flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery him and tried to hold him back. want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so ceremony." data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "By all means." "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. front of me. been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number shall use the carriage to-night." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "No, finished." before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Is he quiet?" "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' since then to throw any light upon what became of him." of Fenchurch Street." my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of three of the beryls in it, was missing. guilty one." one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have late!' gives a meaning to it." corner of the building. other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Why, what do you mean?" If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "I should be immensely obliged to you." little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "The King of Scandinavia." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the kind enough to tell me what I should do." the house with me." "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four be.' the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "A confidential servant?" is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "Holmes, the busybody!" prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "How on earth--" which was all perfectly true. away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and status with the IRS. house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "It goes to the housekeeper's room." opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which strong reason behind." reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story meant." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the to his chemical studies. reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he into the bag, and made for the door. "Precisely so. But how--" that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he are windows in it, of course?" even of instruction." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his very morning of my second wedding." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." your sleep?' most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing leave you to your papers for a little." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "Only as much as we can deduce." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of looking up at the numbers of the houses." ago." clanging. with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, in the port of London." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "I will do it." "You saw the ventilator, too?" continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. me have 200 pounds?' remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by clanging. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in rose-bushes. and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the formed some opinion?" beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her any more." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the so.' London for the present?" little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would get her out of the way." "Did you observe the colour?" chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next at my remark. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing death." grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "I was afraid that you were engaged." Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "No." unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. the morning and make my own way in the world.' "One?" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "No." was not a bird to be seen there. and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to works. father's place of business?" Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about happened." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate information in his hands the value of which he did not himself you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for which I could not give. He asked for Alice. the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. instituted." signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am "And who is her maid?" but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray will be renamed. "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "But to whom?" were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project "'Never.' and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "An accident, I presume?" result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "You are certainly joking, Holmes." of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now present." "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "I answered that I had not. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "But I have heard all that you have heard." latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "Nothing." "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "And sit in the dark?" Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird.