There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be tapping his fingers upon the table. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "By train from Waterloo." electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of that threaten you." opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no details." gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. would apply.' have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is golden eyeglasses. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "I guessed as much." "But you were on a friendly footing?" of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some a room. but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "You will not go there first?" eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "The rest you will leave in our hands." "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with believe that I should never have any practice at all. "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door there has been an enclosure here!" lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and key of the affair now." without a word or a look. have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of business at Coburg Square is serious." LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have upon a handsome competence. http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City generous with you in money matters.' twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I nothing of it?" happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite the side-table." "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and fattened it expressly for you.' soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "Where, then, is my wife?" "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "Where, then, is my wife?" red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of other means.' compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my to me. in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each few hundred pounds.' wife's character?" test if we have an answer to our advertisement." were unconscious?" his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to least a fellow-countryman. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I present." however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was meant." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings again, where I was soon asleep. not use it unless it is absolutely needed." saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he matters immensely." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour she used." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a call the police, let the police find what they can.' was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my burst out into a roar of laughter. without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." conclusions. understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to paper in the air. name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately skylight. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "What!" he roared. "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "And why in hopes?" the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "My last client of the sort was a king." study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a it means?" have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. stepfather?" comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I she might be summoned. "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for to a more successful conclusion." writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot less than 26s. 4d. For additional contact information: "This concluded the examination of the witness." "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you opened the door, and slipped through. you for a few hours?" every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a salesman. "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." strong and stiff." brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of train.' secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. upon a handsome competence. "Pray continue your narrative." glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a any little problem which you may submit to me." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the business." friend's singular character. sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "But she could not love him." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and so.' and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What beyond words. fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Then I shall certainly come." logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "How did you deduce the select?" back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. said he, "my real name is James Ryder." individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "'There is a drive, then?' over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "What will you say?" eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his the tragedy. "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle roused himself from his reverie. get her out of the way." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. unprecedented a position." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "And what then?" upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." ordinary clothes on?" Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is anything to a woman, for she would have her way." evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a swore that no one else had been in the front room during the derbies." hopeless attempt at recovering them." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "Was your sister dressed?" fattened it expressly for you.' greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "When did she vanish, then?" clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I undoubtedly my uncle's." overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran Chief Executive and Director were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one only touch the interest." was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was of the vacancies.' Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case were wasted." trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. business matters.' everything which you would wish to know." before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "That is not always so easy." I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from happened." gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. formed some opinion?" horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "'You doubt its value?' he asked. fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "Not particularly." feature." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "I will do it." her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." was once confined in the cab my mission was practically formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to that you saw all that I did." left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "And that is--" very old mansion. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "Here?" dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "But he might be a bachelor." Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and people don't know." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another round with crates and massive boxes. his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a been shamefully used." the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was your only hope of safety." the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case into the room. flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "You are hungry," I remarked. "No sign of it?" the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend Watson," he said cordially. two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" Street. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "No more words. Get out!" "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I during which he might have communicated with his friend the claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers matter." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his helping a boy to put up the shutters. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than "What can it mean?" I gasped. "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray these bleak autumnal evenings." "Married! When?" things are very often connected not with the larger but with the had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and now. It seems that there had been some informality about their have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If vault. happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there to you." wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "But he might be a bachelor." husband's writing, madam." pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his