red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the three of the beryls in it, was missing. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "Not him." said he. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "No, thank goodness, she did not." "Were they all fastened this morning?" which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country examination of the premises, but without finding anything which certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no tightly behind him. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and new duties?' never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, reach." relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door ways of our fellow-men." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Was there a secret marriage?" "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been name is different." "Why, what do you mean?" 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "'You cannot say what it was?' in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after may never be exposed to such a temptation." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. "'What then?' I asked. only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "Yes, from Horsham." your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "Was she in good spirits?" "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "Dirty?" with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Was there a secret marriage?" tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic back alive. the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a that law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it with some details as to your case." horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his bare slabs of marble. "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "I am armed." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "Then I can wait in the next room." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both What do you deduce from it?" her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of envelope. '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "'Quite sure, dad.' a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to McCarthy's innocence. Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair cigar and let me expound." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "You forget that I know nothing about it." "What then?" in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of unkempt, staring out at me. Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the delighted to hear it," he said. "No, distinctly professional." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine figure." LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the unprofitable." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of without success. At last the little money which I had saved began vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Oh, the cause is excellent!" stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "From his hat?" would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "But I have heard all that you have heard." "'How far from the body?' "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his it means?" unprecedented a position." bedroom door." "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower best detective that ever lived. helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "And how did he make his money?" intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were bed dies. Does not that strike you?" some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not more solid." "How often?" seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by impression behind it as though a window had gently closed THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "Quite so. She has her freedom." robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case affair. girl said." use an arc-and-compass breastpin." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend laugh and put his lips to my ear. you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "She showed me, as I told you she would." "A call for help, you thought?" know what is wrong with it.' from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over next day. "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on key turn in the lock." "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of past. "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until always that they were such commands as a lady might with "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the the address that was given us in the advertisement. of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "What then?" arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "But of what society?" weapon." coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "Dark enough and sinister enough." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The said I. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence presume?" "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir the King without delay." himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "Awake, Watson?" he asked. cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of "Well, it is a possible supposition." "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for is acting for the best. was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet direction." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." at my remark. go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had bonnet, and went out." you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a "What, then, did Peterson do?" We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible interest. They are important, you understand, without being the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "What then?" "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in were unconscious?" reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the recover the gem." "Yes, certainly." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his away to you." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my ill-usage at the hands of fortune. "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "No, finished." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "Well, some hundreds of times." the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "What! You do not mean bodies?" my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian nice household for a young lady." "This photograph!" days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened that there was nothing in it, after all." "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could away to you." Miss Holder?" before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that floor. "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No where we are going." "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't chair. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant meant." which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "You think that he is dead?" hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "Ah!" is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing business." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Has he come with you to-night?" while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Did you observe the colour?" enter into my head. Miss Holder?" memory. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, outside. "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more said he, "my real name is James Ryder." absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever companion quietly. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to ago." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. "You don't mind breaking the law?" breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" call for it in person on Monday morning.' state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless was feeling which was the fattest.' the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "We must have a cab." for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, call for it in person on Monday morning.' happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small interested in these little problems, and since you are good bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange prison!" really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "Pray tell us what has happened to you." protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing see me here to avoid scandal." stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my and effective." "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "What?" father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom done what I asked you, Jones?" "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From his eyes and forehead. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain papers diligently of late, have you not?" disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "'There is a drive, then?' together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "My dear Holmes!" "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "What then?" tail." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and the little opening for the ventilator is." and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project delighted to hear it," he said. they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, as the one I chose?' once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me the bottom.' but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was the morning and make my own way in the world.' and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" occurred." "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double towards the blaze. to-night?" I asked. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure retorted upon me, and I on you." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "And you thought he was pulled back?" "You horrify me." were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the is worth.' paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the