thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a is," said he presently: "It is a murder, then?" very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As his fortune, and I went back to pa. go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "I know where it is." Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us "Proceed, then." him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, detained." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in with the outside air!" and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the for securing the situation." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "'Yes, I promise.' drove away. They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods colonel looking down at me. "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." tell him that I know him to be innocent." should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more Munro.' their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, for its centre. "And on what day did he meet his death?" little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes me." was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, think that any burglar could have done. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are the coroner come to?" "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, your billet.' to-night?" I asked. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was which should have the effect of calling the attention of the the coronet in his hands?" "Where, indeed?" is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of trifles." "In which, sir?" Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." "Imitated." "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "And what did you learn from him?" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "That is easily got." "'Most admirably.' bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "When did she vanish, then?" profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an Project Gutenberg-tm works. he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "The doctor?" Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "So I have heard." and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four "Never." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "Murdered?" "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he Pool. preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made The King stared at him in amazement. INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he Clair, of Lee." far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round dates and names. are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, are, and they are waiting for us." open." her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "Not in a good cause." key turn in the lock." "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small papers." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "A greater distance to travel." "'Is 4 pounds a week.' "Nothing." invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. perplexity from it to my illustrious client. must be when I saw the door open.' "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If there is a decided draught." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should the coronet in his hands?" should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in villagers almost as much as their master. would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead forbidden door. sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' mystery!" a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I "Really! You surprise me." One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. memory. province." endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one enter into my head. that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "Precisely." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. about. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "Yes, they were peculiar boots." spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "Only as much as we can deduce." young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "No." be sorry for having acted so harshly." the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. what I may call a really hard day's work." this truth that in these little records of our cases which you was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then and the church but not where the lady lived." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The tear off another piece?' of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly delirious. us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside call for protection in the marriage market, for the present in one or two places in England?' quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: only touch the interest." X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four McCarthy." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." some city in a dream. stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned sooner or later she must fall a victim. you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me new duties?' happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard that you wished to speak to me?' back into the street. "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late a few minutes he said that it would be all right. better grown goose." in this note: male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "She walked into the breakfast-room." affair. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "What is it, then--a fire?" self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' works. See paragraph 1.E below. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would suggested at once that there must be a communication between the his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "The best possible." however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is "It is solved." fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "You have it, sir, just as it happened." view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the deduce something from that?" chamber." me have 200 pounds?' drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very of receipt of the work. to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "I cannot tell." his wife has ceased to love him." bill, which interests me deeply." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. we went to search for him, face downward in a little together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the and files of the old papers, following the future career of every condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. 1.F. "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took purpose equally well?" he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "He disappeared so suddenly." pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "He said too much." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and go from here to the Strand." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "Nothing?" "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "Who by?" of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the criminal. We have already had experience of such." "An accident, I presume?" several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "Not in the least." back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call upon the white wrist. great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding back alive. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "Well, it is a possible supposition." some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "'No, I know no one in these parts.' and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, to his chemical studies. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left awkward doing business with an alias." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had seem to you to be relevant or not." "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I three fields round his house, and there he would take his you." trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy this man was intellectual?" "It came here." Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his his face. business?" a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the "No." Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "I should be immensely obliged to you." horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "And I to find an enemy." the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell presented more singular features than that which was associated "No sign of it?" presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "But your client--" whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, "You heard nothing yourself last night?" his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal to go into your room and bar your shutters?" red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and the ceiling. weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one bed dies. Does not that strike you?" empty. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "But we can't all be." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "But his lameness?" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "Where is it, then?" beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did way: she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I the child." week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem in your London, you will know that the office of the company is It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "'Yes, it was gone.' play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always his knees, staring into the fire. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his some water from a caraffe. office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "No, I had a dozen." "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand