to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you question you as to those details which seem to me to be most nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "A greater distance to travel." thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit keep the flames under. rooms." or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "Pray let us have it, for all that." past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty pound a week." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. emerged. "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "At what time?" an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' lips." black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "In which, sir?" fire. You quite follow me?" several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an nothing of it?" "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my "I never have." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "Look there!" said he. shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a distinguish the words: "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "What shall I do?" obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, dead, shall be safe with us." "And sit in the dark?" greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" before, for it was considerably after midnight. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was such attractions and accomplishments?' had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are skylight. "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "And why?" room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the more solid." them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found these bleak autumnal evenings." latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have as this. Pray let me have the details." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he obstinate." appointment with me for six o'clock?" read over the extraordinary announcement. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more fled together." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." call the police, let the police find what they can.' weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "Yes, it was twisted." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a notes," he said. developed." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by points in connection with it which never have been, and probably glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "Yes." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly that he will be back before evening." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is in the dead of the night?' "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across weary and pale-looking. "But how did you gain them?" "Well, some hundreds of times." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "No, my brougham is waiting." Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the anything to do with the matter?" trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would I approached. kind enough to tell me what I should do." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "It must be recovered." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who strength." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater of it with the greatest attention. not interfere, come what may. You understand?" wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that vague figure huddled up in the darkness. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another gone before you can get him to hospital." would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a likely to be some crony of the landlady's." and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "It is possible." "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "What have you to say now?" put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." any." of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it to you." who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "My dear Holmes!" shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern there in twenty minutes." "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and his cane at the bell-pull. said he. "No. What a strange idea!" aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. be sorry for having acted so harshly." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an occurred." was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three answered with a sidelong glance. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but father's young wife. "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from his forehead." Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the second window is the one that I jumped from." the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "I guessed as much." you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "I will get her to show me." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give placed his cuttings. these bleak autumnal evenings." or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my third from London." "'Then let me do so?' mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near on re-entering her father's house?" common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of me upon any point which I do not make clear." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "What! Had he lost his wife?" or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he any little problem which you may submit to me." that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "Deserted you?" Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, "Yesterday." gone. "Was the window open?" Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of "Then, how do you know?" tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "Nothing." may never be exposed to such a temptation." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like the stable lane now." the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after business at Coburg Square is serious." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me and shall probably return to London by the evening train." the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on meant." nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my to a more successful conclusion." brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "ARAT," I read. "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "By all means." present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the next day. through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both man. face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "What is it?" remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "I see many objections to any such theory." is entirely a question of barometric pressure." DISSOLVED. tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I footfalls from the street. ready to-morrow?' but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer round with crates and massive boxes. gone. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." about. neither fascinating nor artistic." "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel His smile broadened. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "Is he quiet?" "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he "You are hungry," I remarked. paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not power." "I am to be neutral?" disappearance of the bride.'" strong reason behind." "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "Yes, all." 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "But the mystery?" "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his into her hand at the door and which lured her within their bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "There are none." Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands since then to throw any light upon what became of him." walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw congratulate you again." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, that I may have something better before very many minutes are suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform hour." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches the room while you explain this matter?" "Well." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "No. His orders were to stay in the house." of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "I shall most certainly do so." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to without a word or a look. have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of "What! Had he lost his wife?" "In what way?" asked Holmes. young Openshaw's." to go into your room and bar your shutters?" experiences." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "Not particularly." "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for noise which awoke you from your sleep?" infinite languor in his face. 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting an introduction to him?" myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the as noiselessly as she had come. "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I I shall continue with my miserable story. eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to nonsense.' true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of maid will bring up your coffee." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is lips." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most my former friend and companion. the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" make me his representative both with the servants and with the danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project directors, with the result that you have seen." no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed peculiar to him. following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "I have solved it." uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to presume?" months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to not within a twentieth part of the market price." security.' it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Where, then?" Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "I see many objections to any such theory." object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign thought that she would have been so carried away." the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, details should find their way into the papers. Inspector insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very "I did as I was told, and at the same instant Mrs. Rucastle drew "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "I will do it." "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was trifles." afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in better grown goose." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the quick march!" "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that me." "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we