receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a Literary Archive Foundation were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "Nor running a chance of arrest?" locked." "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was married her." the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind in the hope of finding them." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." despair." the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "Very well, sir. And this stone?" police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to the south-west, I see." jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to yourselves in at night?" hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of had died away into the silence from which it rose. a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, Sutherland. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "'Tell me all about it,' said I. description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "So I am. Very much so." fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward case-book, which he consulted. course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "Yes, from Horsham." flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "Was your sister dressed?" square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that should be so warm over such a trifle." "The landlord of the Alpha." done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by learned something! Where are the gems?" named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you or other trace. But how on earth--" plantation.' "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though "What then?" was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of if only as a check to my own memory." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "Precisely so. But how--" Stoke Moran." "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a minor matters until to-morrow." education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted ourselves in the office." own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue Have you good authority for what you say?" contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor chamber." continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a and the church but not where the lady lived." business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." important." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of she might be summoned. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and Stoke Moran." "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to society." tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "Which are?" "Yes, there are nearly always some there." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip awkward doing business with an alias." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, indeed which he could not unravel. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." nonsense.' three fields round his house, and there he would take his explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of he died? They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at green of the new foliage. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, 'I should be able to look after that for you.' office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon so far?" "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should with you?" Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me name is different." broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "'Oh, no.' "Nor running a chance of arrest?" thirty. paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was when you have done it." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, place, I think that there is good ground to think that the "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "I will not look." "What! Had he lost his wife?" chance." bedroom door." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon a monotonous occupation." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are "I beg pardon." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "None." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the of the efforts of the United States government and of the better man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his straighten it?" gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be are windows in it, of course?" "'What, the red-headed man?' gone. "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "We were both in the photograph." she slowly sank and died without having recovered her box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally character. keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet leave you to your papers for a little." at my own good fortune. the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so this poor creature." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the one's self under obligations.' controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "But you can know nothing of this?" "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "Yes." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "But how?" "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "And how have you succeeded?" astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of status with the IRS. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting occupations.' of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features I held the little printed slip to the light. and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the words came to my lips. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "Which are?" ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after into the room. "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that character. the coronet in his hand?" Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is shadow pass over his face as I spoke. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "And now?" I asked. felt the room to be a little close.' look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "But how?" bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "'Which dealer's?' lamp. among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His rat could hardly pass through." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of some mystery and the punishment of some crime." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at over here." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very strength." "'Where could I find him?' incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "It is true that I have been generally successful." best detective that ever lived. As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. stammered. homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom clang of the bell. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for is worth.' "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout intrusion of other matters." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the Lestrade of Scotland Yard." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." I think that I could be of assistance to you." the coronet at all injured?" double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "Never." with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a name is different." call you and give you the chance." of it with the greatest attention. them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the look upon these things in a different way." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "If I can be of use." would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have that you saw all that I did." starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "I cannot as yet see any connection." although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR coroner's jury." listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom was shining brightly. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob himself in a perplexing position. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" this man was intellectual?" saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself "Indeed! Whose, then?" "Then, as to money?" "You are certainly joking, Holmes." consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to have got?" a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I on in his house." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it."