could gather together that I was able to avert another public my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her "But not more so than I to find you." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and locked. photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure what these perils are?" relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing true." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If there." shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small dead, shall be safe with us." "Where to?" wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "'What, the red-headed man?' grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses bachelor.' to his chemical studies. the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project you do it in twenty minutes!' know what is wrong with it.' Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to know that the truth is known." "Yes." garden below. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when woman who has had her own way to make in the world. yet." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I be.' into the room. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient http://gutenberg.net/license). "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! chill to my heart. constraint." play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "You are certainly joking, Holmes." corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the charge against him will break down." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "VIOLET HUNTER." travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the of a light. could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I constraint." are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you was it brought him the coronet? course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the fat-encircled eyes. yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "But she will refuse." permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he certainly not very gracious." bears upon the case?" listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: train from Paddington which would bring you there at about beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. late." "So I am. Very much so." already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "And the cigar-holder?" keep the flames under. His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "And the murderer?" it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which and have this put in the evening papers." "What of the rat, then?" the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped depend upon your compliance." just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that What do you deduce from it?" your troubles." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at fire. You quite follow me?" On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom newspaper selections." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, other lovers by making love himself." question. slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am which I could not give. He asked for Alice. intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the suspect him." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their highly," said Holmes. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has of them, which makes one for you, and one for us, and two dozen "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it which we had just quitted. business?" "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "Nothing?" have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" quick march!" he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and together. not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would "Entirely." "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. very morning of my second wedding." rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "That is it on the dressing-table." "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began have one." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "'Yes, sir.' you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "But how will you look?" coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "They are typewritten," I remarked. Holmes' room. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely shag which I had seen upon the previous night. work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I http://www.gutenberg.net much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord business." evidence," I remarked. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were to that open window." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a "It looks newer than the other things?" at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help and that he would see to anything that turned up. said he. bird I ate is country bred." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, business matters.' "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. case-book, which he consulted. extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." not interfere, come what may. You understand?" International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been begin with, and I had not got mine yet." is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own "And your father? Did you tell him?" "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would interests were the same as his." We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish fuss that is made over them." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their as he folded up the epistle. "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill carried out of court." by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they useful material for showing traces. The double line a little earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "You are hungry," I remarked. value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "When did she vanish, then?" Lee, in the county of Kent." "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "That was it, sir." remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently his huge brown hands. sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. tell me that you intended to go into harness." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, go--none." "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life when you have done it." "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "Yes, it would be as well." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "You have carte blanche." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their "Upon what point?" since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a not come at once?" Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" Lestrade of Scotland Yard." have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a such person." That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. to miss it." "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own troubles have been weighing upon his mind. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "But the mystery?" "It is to him that this trophy belongs." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the in my life." unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done depend upon your compliance." Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he photograph?" walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but fasten all the windows?" will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife place no limit on the sum I may draw." is four-and-twenty." lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "We must have a cab." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "Did you become engaged then?" and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "'Oh, no.' only touch the interest." "If so, much may have happened between." or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I round with crates and massive boxes. it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how the running down." "Where, then, is my wife?" "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to was lame." Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and that threaten you." "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" come either from the window or the door. My attention was "Who by?" at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "Certainly." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was overpowering excitement and concern. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. matter." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about presume?" outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker my friend's incisive reasoning. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from villagers almost as much as their master. down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was your sleep?' man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "The landlord of the Alpha." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a three fields round his house, and there he would take his He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from bedroom door." "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "Certainly, madam." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "Did he not advertise?" whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "If I can be of use." an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried tell them apart.' must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." forbidden door. "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they definite end. again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the chance." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day examine." to affect your life." "To an English lawyer named Norton." in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began cup of tea. room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector "My last client of the sort was a king." "You have compromised yourself seriously." passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "Won't it ring?" child?' friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore nights." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed "Never." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, photograph?" "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked.