"'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside have I gained?" entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly impression behind it as though a window had gently closed had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "'Is 4 pounds a week.' promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a speckled band?" husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "I never have." absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be main points of my analysis." "To an English lawyer named Norton." breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my points in connection with it which never have been, and probably used to be." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "One horse?" interjected Holmes. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & This is what he says: "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little of note-paper. It read in this fashion: stood on the top of it. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the geese which you supplied to the Alpha." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he "Where, then?" heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. records." fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom approach us with offers to donate. departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "I am to be neutral?" "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his was lame." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something matter over." "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the his forehead." "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little ways of our fellow-men." "It is half-past ten now." space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of secret." which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little this Miss Turner." Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, the matter?" smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the intrusion of other matters." "You will not go there first?" furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "That was it, sir." it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "That also I could fathom." o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort good for you to do.' kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "'Stolen!' he cried. "Yes. He waved his hands." "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire coroner's jury." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of man. dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the use an arc-and-compass breastpin." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a mystery!" it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "That is not always so easy." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." quite distinctive." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "Precisely so. But how--" destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "He might." him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far individual and becomes the badge of a society." hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the other means.' had picked up in the wood. sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "But you would not advise me to refuse?" belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which fashion which was peculiar to him. "Yes." had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "None." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" to tackle the facts." to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting "I cannot imagine." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind I held the little printed slip to the light. were new raised from a basin. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the murdered man." and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and Surrey." becomes even more simple." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "Do you know him?" "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "I shall be delighted." "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "No, thank goodness, she did not." "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "'What, the red-headed man?' once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Very much so." relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly said he. future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I skylight. But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. question. politicians who had been sent down from the North. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "A thing like a cleaver," said he. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, never came back." alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered "Where to?" lost nothing by them." that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. interests were the same as his." "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the of receipt of the work. Holmes' room. ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "And on what day did he meet his death?" my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend already been minutely examined." prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that made his money." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a following enigmatical notices: morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the was the fact that his father should, according to his account, body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such and prosperity to your house. Good-night." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." gone before you can get him to hospital." made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love meant it for the best. should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in undoubtedly my uncle's." conceal it?" observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the of his shoulders. "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' might help us?" people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at other lovers by making love himself." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' delighted to hear it," he said. shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot success. sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love works. Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "'Certainly not. But why?' favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been call for it in person on Monday morning.' "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four over with notes and figures. though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" at home. upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to other, as fresh and trim as possible. investigation." himself in a perplexing position. Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much "Not I." You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are whole matter to your consideration." be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "At the wedding breakfast." depend upon my doing so.' immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "And who is her maid?" latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary better grown goose." offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." locked. 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no without success. At last the little money which I had saved began The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an better grown goose." "Her father is very rich?" The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite in him." being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment his forehead." "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not name is different." hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "To an end?" Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time him nearly every evening." "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On know that the truth is known." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel ventilator." "But what will you do?" any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' call it cruel." remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously individual and becomes the badge of a society." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me very morning of my second wedding." Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and Have you good authority for what you say?" however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side "Yes, I have one waiting." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special acquaintance?" been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his cause to be." the armchair which I pushed forward for him. copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "Could he throw no light?" "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was tell me that you intended to go into harness." have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous of them has the shutters up.' "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "I will do it." said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "What then?" As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. "'What, the red-headed man?' the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, friend's singular character. young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away it right.' and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. the coronet in his hands?" from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "But the mystery?" "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking pierced for earrings?" "Why? What do you mean?" trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry desk. clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that written, and locked the door of the office after me. I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "You will not go there first?" away to you." endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a skylight. you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can heavy and sharp instrument." "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." have been better. It is all right." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, easy-going way." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes some water from a caraffe. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head rat could hardly pass through." the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I there were one or two details which were new to me. But the presented which may be striking and bizarre without being to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "I was mad--insane." so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were