have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to congenial hunt. this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought time." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." business in the City. She little knew what. "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil companion quietly. "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "How do you know, then?" determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "Perhaps I have." this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "Always." gone before you can get him to hospital." one of the states of the Union." awkward doing business with an alias." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A Edgeware Road. overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and examine." "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "Here?" you understand?" would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of habit of advancing money.' tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a nice household for a young lady." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps your room." The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Then you may be so with me." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project investigation." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "Pray be precise as to details," said he. as noiselessly as she had come. three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four least a fellow-countryman. distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "That is not always so easy." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. business matters.' woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. a monotonous occupation." "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the address. admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent never came back." examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each open." back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "My dear Holmes!" "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign which should have the effect of calling the attention of the of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a him. could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, next day. "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well easy-going way." "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an quick march!" assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of could go. There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "To the police?" successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such enter into my head. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "I have my revolver," said I. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "'About the same.' "How about poison?" Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, of the efforts of the United States government and of the better When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "What! a murderous attack?" my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in of his shoulders. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." at my remark. there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible certainly not very gracious." really the only notable feature about the thing." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' definite end. not as remarkable as your advertisement." My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, I think that I could be of assistance to you." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round shadow pass over his face as I spoke. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good she slowly sank and died without having recovered her helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a "'Oh, no.' and prosperity to your house. Good-night." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I the date of his supposed suicide." states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "What will you do, then?" "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing "'Never,' said I. going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is second." wedding?" manager. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were You can understand that this register and diary may implicate importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of persecution?" "Witness: It was. wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the "She told me to ask you." of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide nice household for a young lady." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. intrusion of other matters." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." your most interesting statement." smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small that the gas is not laid on in his house?" eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "'Yes, sir.' pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled whereabouts. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which ways of our fellow-men." teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought outside." of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when one's self under obligations.' "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "It is true that I have been generally successful." "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "Ah!" With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, joking. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself shall use the carriage to-night." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely coroner's jury." your own bird, so if you wish--" Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, matters immensely." relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "You think so, too?" Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off "No bad?" can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to kind enough to tell me what I should do." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small business in the City. She little knew what. great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "It is solved." afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "Pray do so." following enigmatical notices: standing smiling on the door-step. of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore ceremony." he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been said he at last. 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "The rest you will leave in our hands." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit because she had spent so short a time in this country that she them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with with her." "No." should be taken.' feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the ordinary clothes on?" "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, he bowed and left the room without another word. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea of his shoulders. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can went to the Alpha were town bred." weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my was a lad." lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him cigar and let me expound." keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire persecution?" and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he never to learn it at all." be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough your own bird, so if you wish--" her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." that he has suffered." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that where we are going." "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. Sholtos." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "She told me to ask you." stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary knowledge of the world." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another writers could invent nothing more crude." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "One?" Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "ARAT," I read. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old with frightened eyes at his accuser. turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "I would pay ten." of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle things are very often connected not with the larger but with the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the http://gutenberg.net/license). reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him key turn in the lock." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a nothing of it?" exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." way: Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "She showed me, as I told you she would." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about was already answered. rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault