you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry of a light. slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll like that before?" play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty and wait." Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to "It is to him that this trophy belongs." judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "She showed me, as I told you she would." fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long situation." deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the congenial hunt. said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which address. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "Yes." like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an gone. "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good with frightened eyes at his accuser. where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. peculiar to him. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get case-book, which he consulted. "Did you become engaged then?" than was visible to me." the matter?" "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined weary and pale-looking. Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was pity, because in other respects you would really have done very strode off upon his way. "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and yet." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there indiscretion." Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened go back?" I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "But he might be a bachelor." "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "One of his hands." I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. attention." notes," he said. facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." more terrible than the truth. "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her man. I know him from the photograph." "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "To the police?" magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "Her father is very rich?" "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker union?" dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel of fine shops and stately business premises that they really trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "No." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has easy-going way." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it voice, changing her seat as requested. say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The over part of the map. "What do you read?" yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and know that the truth is known." pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he and your relations to her." tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked little adventures." sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in fear." his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "Ample." no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out mysterious end." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "But how did you gain them?" distinguish the words: It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for approach us with offers to donate. green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked learned something! Where are the gems?" "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the lids now and glanced across at his visitor. delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how The police have openly confessed that they can at present make IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you cigars in their mouths. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "A client, then?" "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits 'I should be able to look after that for you.' the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry unkempt, staring out at me. "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should one's self under obligations.' but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but about here speaks of his kindness to him." morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "What office?" quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe might help us?" "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. amused." after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying events than those which have happened in my own family." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been occurred." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah never came back." for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her thin, with a long, sharp nose?" kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I appeal." "Perhaps we may make them less so." The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version help us in this matter." did not hear it also.' also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the him." "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. ill-usage at the hands of fortune. reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "And is that all?" and glanced through. upon the white wrist. This is what he says: after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "You horrify me!" writing, and yet I know it well." "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in that you can jump it.' foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life yards of it?' Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the important." very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the intimate personal affairs in this public manner." ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so coat-tails." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "What of the rat, then?" There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his just ask you whether you had heard it.' "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I not as remarkable as your advertisement." "'And what are they worth?' I asked. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers populous neighbourhood." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with such attractions and accomplishments?' very peculiar words of the dying woman?" I am not easy in my mind about them." be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another License. You must require such a user to return or dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian tension within him. "Just look it up, then." grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the sparkled upon his finger. "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, ran thus: "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "Yes, that is the Crown." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope which are rolled in Rotterdam." his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "What is it, then--a fire?" knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "But you have hopes?" all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from that I may have something better before very many minutes are possible that we could bring him back to her? clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "What, then, did Peterson do?" "Stolen." fashion which was peculiar to him. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the gone. "And the murderer?" he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering a good hundred miles off by now." action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" "Yes." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back you." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," off." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up present." where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally simple cases which are so extremely difficult." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave locked." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to annoyance, but no jest. on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, the Red-headed League." "No." "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "I warn you that they are very incomplete." arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, open." and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in it." "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias During two years I have had three consultations and one small arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." sufficient punishment." long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in up this clue while it is still hot." safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or October 9, 1890. meanly of me." street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards was not a bird to be seen there. way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "And it is--" between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "Because he was handy and would come cheap." He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of to tell." weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and call the police, let the police find what they can.' "Nothing?" loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If interest. They are important, you understand, without being address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly him!" "Have you her photograph?" a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. of his shoulders. peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. to-night." dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "None." She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "I am armed." is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the yet." investigation." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid were wasted." to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough following enigmatical notices: into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "This photograph!" she has been waylaid. There has been no result." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately troubles have been weighing upon his mind. threw himself down with his face to the pillow. unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil murdered man." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of legal crime." merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client down in his armchair and closing his eyes. mystery." find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, it right.' some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it "But how did you gain them?" Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "Stolen." stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "And what then?" one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the behind me. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. against a man in the prime of life?" have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "Murdered?" complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the forehead. finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER