which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "Has he come with you to-night?" without success. At last the little money which I had saved began play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it success. In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, the matter." chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire Does that suggest anything?" "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "Will you bet, then?" gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from the south-west, I see." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which way in everything. clanging. "It is solved." the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the himself to hunt down. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. examine." without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." this unhappy family?" photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." flock.' and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a we went to search for him, face downward in a little that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "I think that I had better go, Holmes." in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to chemical work which was so dear to him. "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear you in yours." and I shall be with you presently." rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, has little to do with my story." "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo directly by questioning you." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It think you a quite exceptional woman." "Yes, that is the Crown." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. you in yours." "I am to be neutral?" "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat our word." towards the blaze. would apply.' "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat electronic works bed dies. Does not that strike you?" Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a footfalls from the street. "I have come for advice." to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to me where it went to?" "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the the child." unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his do you make of it all?" "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe approach us with offers to donate. "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that since then to throw any light upon what became of him." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a at once, for I have only half an hour." been." "Come in!" said he. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how and your relations to her." "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "No, I am descending." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the brought there to personate someone, and the real person is The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to ways including including checks, online payments and credit card good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get miles off. unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "Texas, I think." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so there was no need for father to know." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "Yes." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the murdered man." puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "You have the photograph?" and a shock of very red hair. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "I warn you that they are very incomplete." of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "What office?" "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from without success. At last the little money which I had saved began Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, imbecility!" he cried. low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is it." copied or distributed: Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the where we are going." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is trying to your nerves." sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house You can understand that this register and diary may implicate than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the geese which you supplied to the Alpha." and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "In answer to an advertisement." St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the to surprise her." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, drove away. chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to pictures, libraries, or plate. such person." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided acted in my house last night?" "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, impression behind it as though a window had gently closed copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no directors, with the result that you have seen." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her "You know me, then?" "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "And why in hopes?" as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled pound a week." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced http://gutenberg.net/license). his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in business at Coburg Square is serious." hardly wander." "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "By all means." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "ARAT," I read. distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." them?" who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry crowd. quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable writer." Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of notes," he said. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. interests were the same as his." sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, what is your own theory as to what took place?" voice. I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "And I." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "That is also quite modern," said the lady. had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "Yes." "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it few hundred pounds.' how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture suspect him." "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is means taking possession of that which another person has a prior my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, six. Come in!" studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her some place of shelter and let the county police know what has "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been believe that I should never have any practice at all. along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but little trying to do so much typewriting?" "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. and wait." crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "It is to him that this trophy belongs." opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "And Miss Sutherland?" the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "He disappeared so suddenly." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." memory. despaired of." saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in coat-tails." daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "Can I be of assistance?" "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "Yes, but only for you and me." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. and glanced through. "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in could not account in any way for the presence of the missing a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I nonsense.' "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it "'Then let me do so?' younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, very morning of my second wedding." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is "On Monday." wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid there was no need for father to know." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings man. was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and like gravel from a pit.' days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, the dangers which encompass me." will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more one else, I think." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms the loss of it. the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, morning." "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King know that the truth is known." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to better grown goose." down. the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking nice household for a young lady." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my McCarthy." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as Street. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray locked." been with you?" days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco the house with me." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little sneer upon his pale face. abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "On the contrary, this is the right side." "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, your bag." for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "I shall be delighted." disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Nearly eleven." there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took posted to-day." matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came opened the door, and slipped through. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your ceremony." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "This concluded the examination of the witness." brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To