which our visitor detailed to us. them present such singular features as the strange train of a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only not as remarkable as your advertisement." he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "Where did he live, then?" "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two detective. "Now, then, what's the last entry?" and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I answered with a sidelong glance. whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "Then I am your man." "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "You know me, then?" "Why serious?" there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first cup of tea. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a enter Dr. Roylott's room." amused." woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more became a certainty. "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who of a light. docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. cigars in their mouths. "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very the running down." me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he "No." when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as tell him that I know him to be innocent." young Openshaw's." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his will take you up to see the machine.' matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and present strange and interesting features that it is no easy a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no awkward doing business with an alias." "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. your room." showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, even of instruction." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "You horrify me!" "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared the side-table." Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "Very murderous indeed." should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since she has been waylaid. There has been no result." devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "An accident, I presume?" nights." was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, feature." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making that?' feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. very old mansion. bore every mark of being an average commonplace British town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the I approached. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few out." "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes there in twenty minutes." age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "Who by?" years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a secret." a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "'What then?' I asked. drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "'Where could I find him?' "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw "And you can do nothing until then?" "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." narrative." in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had disappearance of these gems?" which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it suggested at once that there must be a communication between the woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah James Windibank. Voilà tout!" that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "But you were on a friendly footing?" "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To Mrs. Toller serenely. she might be summoned. winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always to where he stood hid behind the curtain. confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "But I am all in the dark." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "Then you may entirely rely on me." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Yes, at the mines." minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "Pray do so." office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "Ten will be early enough." "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of habit of advancing money.' "I guessed as much." snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "My dear Holmes!" attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be returning from some small jollification and was making his way said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will the warnings." I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "Can I be of assistance?" top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how again on its way. invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "What is it?" receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has may never be exposed to such a temptation." the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come recover the gem." knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "But not more so than I to find you." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To "I am armed." other means.' neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the the inner apartment." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it everything which you would wish to know." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "Yes, all." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; business in the City. She little knew what. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "But how will you look?" clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a any more." clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his "But you can know nothing of this?" But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those on re-entering her father's house?" "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is take the flies, but not before." thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it seen the man in the road." his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "'In my own bureau.' "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "'Is purely nominal.' did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the beyond words. "To an English lawyer named Norton." "He is still with you, I presume?" "Yes. He waved his hands." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who tied." "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "And the cigar-holder?" then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "Could he throw no light?" was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was that before taking the final step I should like to submit the his wife has ceased to love him." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of McCarthy's innocence. sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "Yesterday." "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. never came back." strength in the others." "Yesterday." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. This is what he says: go--none." key of the affair now." attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at maiden herself was most instructive." and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "'Tell me all about it,' said I. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "'What would be the hours?' I asked. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "Did you become engaged then?" "Game for a morning drive?" drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you asked. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many You can understand that this register and diary may implicate The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common about here speaks of his kindness to him." "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious knowledge of the world." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Witness: I must still refuse. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of shag which I had seen upon the previous night. which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "But we can't all be." business in the City. She little knew what. It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from ashen face. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any lumber-room." "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "Yes, all." impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The of it with the greatest attention. when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take that threaten you." Watson," he said cordially. 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had room had already been engaged for us. "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "Where, indeed?" ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, lost his Christmas dinner." was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. there were one or two details which were new to me. But the a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "Did he not advertise?" "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We hand, madam?" As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our floor. be sorry for having acted so harshly." intimate personal affairs in this public manner." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I his wife has ceased to love him." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day seem to you to be relevant or not." such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, questionable one." "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of fattened it expressly for you.' which we had just quitted. through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "Not social, then?" Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by Street. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save him nearly every evening." "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the galvanised. which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "No, distinctly professional." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled house for five minutes.' character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a compunction about shooting them down." it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who are windows in it, of course?" "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "Ha! you find it so?" considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "And that is--" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and must compliment you." "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the