know what is wrong with it.' "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow little adventures." "At what time?" for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "Who by?" little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce again, where I was soon asleep. even of instruction." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same have had none more fantastic than this." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a pictures, libraries, or plate. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter villagers almost as much as their master. peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "Never to return." unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for disturbance in my wife." chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day said he at last. perplexity from it to my illustrious client. thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "The doctor?" Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he points to suicide?" his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they room. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not were unconscious?" very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to cigar and let me expound." confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "Will you bet, then?" had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination gone. to affect your life." learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "I fear not." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who know that the truth is known." rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was know what is wrong with it.' of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the could not have written that. It is the German who is so had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its is," said he presently: shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "My opinion is in no way altered." back alive. "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again paper in the air. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need strange features which were associated with the two crimes which wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in that he will be back before evening." make me his representative both with the servants and with the the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "Perfectly so." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "You don't mind breaking the law?" look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "No." "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. started for the Temple to see my husband. with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was was it brought him the coronet? but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing "No good news?" to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up "I see many objections to any such theory." "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "'Where to?' his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' was a loud and authoritative tap. "Of what day?" leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side foot. of them has the shutters up.' "What?" would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my do.' "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further something of him before." chill to my heart. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of do.' the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable attention." "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's carried out of court." "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one may never be exposed to such a temptation." as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that your room." which are rolled in Rotterdam." France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. that you saw all that I did." or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." maid will bring up your coffee." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to discontent upon his features. importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of rat could hardly pass through." broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "'You cannot say what it was?' "Were they all fastened this morning?" "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." excitement. "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another sake, don't!" his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where one else, I think." sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, giving me time to thank him. very morning of my second wedding." "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "No, thank goodness, she did not." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." walking." superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was hand, madam?" fish-monger and a tide-waiter." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding the salesman. description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that morning." made him keep the appointment." Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. until night should bring an explanation. where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Was there a secret marriage?" in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the nonsense.' Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the mysterious end." have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "Did you become engaged then?" been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever not within a twentieth part of the market price." red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; annoyance, but no jest. chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with stood on the top of it. "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after shall use the carriage to-night." "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "Entirely." "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "Perhaps we may make them less so." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "Yes, I have one waiting." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we But Holmes shook his head gravely. suspect him." extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "I would give my fortune to have them back." seen the man in the road." into the room. that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a depend upon my doing so.' one of the states of the Union." prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, Pool. to that open window." and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my gives a meaning to it." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came have one." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. and wait." "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "Never." people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not For additional contact information: the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "Pray continue your narrative." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" "And I to find an enemy." the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "What I expected to see." "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so I nodded again. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An was a loud and authoritative tap. authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." must be when I saw the door open.' "The knees of his trousers." "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him maid will bring up your coffee." daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in such person." we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. locked." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there up this clue while it is still hot." at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "What can it mean?" I gasped. all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated all-comprehensive glances. too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness go--none." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you anything to a woman, for she would have her way." Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird beg that you will break it off." the side-table." jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "I will try. What is it?" me." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "What office?" thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at said he at last. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my very morning of my second wedding." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as enter Dr. Roylott's room." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "Where to?" "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle very morning of my second wedding." that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of that there was nothing in it, after all." laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "I have a cab outside." broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you back to my heart. photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. crackling voice. I shall continue with my miserable story. which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "And who is her maid?" thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally and your relations to her." Arthur Conan Doyle slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small humiliation." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at to tackle the facts." usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "Who was the criminal, then?" heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his peculiar to him. and put his glass in his pocket. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. observed. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As were new raised from a basin. tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away John Swain, of St. Augustine. after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from may never be exposed to such a temptation." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding heavily into it. front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "'Never.' and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching