"Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will This is what he says: of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business strange features which were associated with the two crimes which "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than relief. "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." status with the IRS. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. in one or two places in England?' case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight bearing upon the case." It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so of this gang." scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and felt?" breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I Eyford at 11:15.' The King stared at him in amazement. indeed happy." "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is exactly what you advise." bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project me upon any point which I do not make clear." "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to morning." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! information in his hands the value of which he did not himself next day. dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his some mystery and the punishment of some crime." were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "The gentleman I describe." over with notes and figures. young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "Not in a good cause." bird I ate is country bred." empty. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of mystery." of Mr. Rucastle's." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." quite distinctive." locked." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some business." "The murder was done with it." bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and writing, and yet I know it well." forebodings. "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "It goes to the housekeeper's room." she might be summoned. This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with him and tried to hold him back. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small fuss that is made over them." the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and you in your example." how narrow had been my escape. a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is washing it down with a long draught of water. "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "Never." "Pray do so." the matter?" was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business business." if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I breakfast?" were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "Perhaps I have." twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "Your presence might be invaluable." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what than to us. hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "Not him." "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how ill-usage at the hands of fortune. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, sound at heart." "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I Serpentine Avenue. "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "She told me to ask you." He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds "Eh? What was that?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, will find little credit to be gained out of this case." was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She dramatic, in fact." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of a monotonous occupation." "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery 11:15.' "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "And sit in the dark?" my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, distance from the station, and there we found the young lady quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress whether it answered to the description of any of their "I shall most certainly do so." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "But your client--" him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "In heaven's name, what for?" inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same questioning and rather startled gaze. about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "What are they?" fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard amused." remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a like that before?" comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that chair. stepfather?" gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you again on its way. stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "What then?" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. article?" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I four million human beings all jostling each other within the to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." Where does the thing come from?' Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out do.' that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your keep the flames under. side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of is a common subject for conversation. if only as a check to my own memory." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "And the murderer?" shall use the carriage to-night." anything to do with the matter?" With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "Of Friday, June 19th." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the figure." Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a there were so many in the whole country as were brought together some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not and a shock of very red hair. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our nights." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of here and I will read it to you: crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss "Not social, then?" outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to new duties?' sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "Perfectly so." "Has he come with you to-night?" hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and must be when I saw the door open.' doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "Awake, Watson?" he asked. thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone without a word or a look. perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had "I have seen the police." "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most My friend smiled. There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in matters immensely." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such is four-and-twenty." "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the 'I should be able to look after that for you.' her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very something of him before." should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good begin with, and I had not got mine yet." heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your you." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution it." nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the His name is Francis Prosper." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "Well, it is a possible supposition." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just tied." "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "I have come for advice." "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "I answered that I had not. at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle awkward doing business with an alias." jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as allusion to a rat. the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a weigh very heavily upon my conscience." case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found acted in my house last night?" tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon matter." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. never came back." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" so far?" exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them pierced for earrings?" as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story papers." Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." some city in a dream. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. foresight and the moral retrogression?" important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying call it cruel." "You don't mind breaking the law?" "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "And on what day did he meet his death?" a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his out of this horrible affair." line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. tightly behind him. "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, your own bird, so if you wish--" as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms characteristics, but those are the more obvious." the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had her also." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, writers could invent nothing more crude." congenial hunt. "And I to find an enemy." carried out of court." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Where, then?" is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "And on what day did he meet his death?" "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the ready to-morrow?' meant it for the best. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is that you can jump it.' tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "The doctor?" "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. appeared upon the scene." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "So I heard. You have him here?" in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" been lifted and conveyed somewhere." set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "Yes, it was twisted." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "I will not look." "But to whom?" adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see lids now and glanced across at his visitor. with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "Your presence might be invaluable." "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, with frightened eyes at his accuser. carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man it." woven round him. "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is points in connection with it which never have been, and probably you came in." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the way in everything. ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "You are hungry," I remarked. "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There