inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace she has been waylaid. There has been no result." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "Dark enough and sinister enough." in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "What steps will you take?" I asked. tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was in my life." possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what really the only notable feature about the thing." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it over here." "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now "I think it very unlikely." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of to tell." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, throat." "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on late." the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to appeared upon the scene." "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "Who was the criminal, then?" "That is unusual in a young girl." foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "'There is a drive, then?' The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found down. do." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Dr. Becher's." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and experiences." electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual you?" so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, I shall continue with my miserable story. "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in he bowed and left the room without another word. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick strode off upon his way. we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. sufficient punishment." hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was hair?' "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "What then?" The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one Lestrade of Scotland Yard." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. if I call to-morrow?" "'Yes, I promise.' invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is here." something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a served to weaken the effect. tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose "Very murderous indeed." "They are typewritten," I remarked. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, cigars in the box." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the whereabouts. down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have again, where I was soon asleep. Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. "Yes." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his that he has suffered." serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "And why in hopes?" "And you can do nothing until then?" my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the Pope's Court, Fleet Street." 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had the matter." corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "But of what society?" questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "Always." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't front of me. Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations strength in the others." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you breakfast." the bottom.' were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my shall not find me ungrateful." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual to take care of herself." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story lids now and glanced across at his visitor. pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love imbecility!" he cried. actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," she has been waylaid. There has been no result." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "Nothing?" But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which rose-bushes. "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue fishes. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the not use it unless it is absolutely needed." seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for was already answered. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in anything to a woman, for she would have her way." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove was not a bird to be seen there. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for than was visible to me." that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet she used." hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate suspect him." her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "Stoke Moran?" said he. out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock I think that I could be of assistance to you." hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive "Have you it here?" dramatic, in fact." vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is was keenly on my guard against him. should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She him, that man would not have given me such complete information "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the helping a boy to put up the shutters. who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the more terrible than the truth. out of this horrible affair." SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the God! What an exposure! What can I do?" You can understand that this register and diary may implicate was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are cigar and let me expound." seven miles from Eyford Station.' "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a off." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in which it had come upon my father." yet." left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "I was mad--insane." body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of into her hand at the door and which lured her within their explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "I was mad--insane." last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my and the whole place is in a blaze." but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "But how could you guess what the motive was?" will he say when he returns?" kind enough to tell me what I should do." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "My stepfather's business papers." very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "By no means." step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you I have it here in my museum." meanly of me." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "Yes." along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem it. "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "None." reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save feature." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, mystery may be cleared along those lines." Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." conduct the inquiry." right! Sit down and let us talk it over." up this clue while it is still hot." "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the points in connection with it which never have been, and probably husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier when you have done it." with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began "Very truly yours, This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "The murder was done with it." the morning and make my own way in the world.' was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "No good news?" without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it forehead. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a lids now and glanced across at his visitor. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be unclasping of his long thin hands. brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "That also I could fathom." delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, opportunities to fix the problem. "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "He said too much." endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess matters immensely." Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was or other trace. But how on earth--" yourselves in at night?" Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the the one as in the other." One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "And why in hopes?" I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness will find little credit to be gained out of this case." I. revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Then you may be so with me." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and have had none more fantastic than this." to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "'There is a drive, then?' "Yes." in your London, you will know that the office of the company is much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in case-book, which he consulted. directly by questioning you." "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. triumphant cloud from his cigarette. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. promised to bring home. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he your billet.' "What steps will you take?" I asked. should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the himself to tell his story. over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in he. "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite in the hope of finding them." "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "That is possible." interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by interest. They are important, you understand, without being invisible to me," I remarked. house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the that I am arrested." determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "The murder was done with it." confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my and inquire as to the address." all-comprehensive glances. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "I think that I had better go, Holmes." morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." stammered. "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? helping a boy to put up the shutters. upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do fashion which was peculiar to him. "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a to his chemical studies. "That is possible." "'Most admirably.' "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of