distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly point in the dark hollow of his hand. I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which stepfather?" over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR handed it to him. he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that prison!" horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "My stepfather's business papers." body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian populous neighbourhood." hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that colonel looking down at me. will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the amused." Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "Stolen." Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "'Yes, sir.' question you as to those details which seem to me to be most enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "But not more so than I to find you." my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "Yes." were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had My friend smiled. the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "A client, then?" summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" particular state visit http://pglaf.org last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with letters?" "I should like to see him very much." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' tear off another piece?' out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "I have solved it." Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in late." Sutherland?" to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his is worth.' "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a there in twenty minutes." Have you good authority for what you say?" broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, villagers almost as much as their master. go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." chamber." "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was could go. the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "A confidential servant?" perplexity from it to my illustrious client. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, away to you." to-night?" I asked. asked. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "'A dozen yards or so.' neither fascinating nor artistic." jewels which you have stolen?' clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." cup of tea. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be photograph a cabinet?" but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going enter into my head. considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very have been better. It is all right." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "The King of Scandinavia." circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She round and wave him away like that.' have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was out of this horrible affair." and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like depend upon your compliance." himself to hunt down. glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of gigantic client. Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three morning." has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment becomes even more simple." in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "Where is it, then?" walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, main points of my analysis." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "Holmes, the busybody!" the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "To ruin me." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on is a common subject for conversation. "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "Deserted you?" asked. their singular warning or token before them when starting upon hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, happened." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the point our research must commence, and we will begin it by and the church but not where the lady lived." manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "'Stolen!' he cried. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss conduct the inquiry." humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a of them has the shutters up.' "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "That is unusual in a young girl." shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few not within a twentieth part of the market price." Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of showing my impatience. America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by awkward doing business with an alias." experiences." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "But of what society?" little trying to do so much typewriting?" certainly not very gracious." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have papers." see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the sooner or later she must fall a victim. "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" Miss Holder?" chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man "Yes." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "Was there a secret marriage?" with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double bled considerably." Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly had died away into the silence from which it rose. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is best detective that ever lived. "It missed him, then?" "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir you." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, strength of mind to control. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed been deceived." went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "'Is purely nominal.' (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little must compliment you." opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the figure." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "'What then?' I asked. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle "I think that I had better go, Holmes." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "'It is locked up,' I answered. seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of "And why in hopes?" Heh?' "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from http://www.gutenberg.net is acting for the best. be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "Which are?" prepare for the new role I have to play." deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl thin, with a long, sharp nose?" all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was "To an English lawyer named Norton." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly and the church but not where the lady lived." ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice way in everything. may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "Who was the criminal, then?" "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by records." "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked him to be an active member of the medical profession." "How on earth--" "But how?" fattened it expressly for you.' "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was "Yes, sir." however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should hour?' it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after article?" envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the again, where I was soon asleep. streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were enter Dr. Roylott's room." chance." and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged good for you to do.' ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I The events in question occurred in the early days of my danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "By train from Waterloo." charged with?" in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. "Perhaps we may make them less so." through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day six. Come in!" "Was there a secret marriage?" "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. "At the wedding breakfast." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but been lifted and conveyed somewhere." chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the look upon these things in a different way." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits indeed which he could not unravel. "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful tear off another piece?' "That is not always so easy." "How do you know, then?" Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, was it brought him the coronet? does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, thirty. twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an your only hope of safety." soul! here is her carriage at the door." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the weapon." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my out." drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "That is not always so easy." you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you tied." "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "On the contrary, this is the right side." these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his had no one to advise her at such a crisis." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given upon the shelf for the interim." there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should with frightened eyes at his accuser. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "A call for help, you thought?" And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the The events in question occurred in the early days of my "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "Why serious?" "What I expected to see." number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall words came to my lips. door?" controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.