than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No deduce something from that?" you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the for the market.' half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "No, I am descending." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "What! a murderous attack?" laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "How did that help you?" look dissatisfied." Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham burst out into a roar of laughter. "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, minor matters until to-morrow." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them is so. I know all about McCarthy." suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "In San Francisco, a year ago." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my the coroner come to?" Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his this Miss Turner." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "And Irene Adler?" "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the he died? grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "We have tried and failed." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "And who is her maid?" The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements ran thus: moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "Your presence might be invaluable." occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. arms and began to sob in a high treble key. that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. mysterious business." cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "What I expected to see." lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "What do you mean?" whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "Do you know him?" of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "What steps will you take?" I asked. "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "An enemy?" number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "Quite so. She has her freedom." "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "And how?" until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "I see many objections to any such theory." and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, 1.F. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this habit of advancing money.' his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a key turn in the lock." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been and looked back. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers drove away. "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and tension within him. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "No, but the enclosure is." laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "A thing like a cleaver," said he. tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been thin, with a long, sharp nose?" "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. just called myself is not exactly my own." loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "The gentleman I describe." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "What then?" "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any purpose equally well?" morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been one of the states of the Union." some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds closing the door. find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an that you can jump it.' "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, Serpentine Avenue. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that invisible to me," I remarked. power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. them present such singular features as the strange train of third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not awkward doing business with an alias." thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. any more." "10th. John Swain cleared. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "What have you to say now?" shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I down from London to inquire more deeply into it." too. the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black your Highness to the police-station?" maid will bring up your coffee." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: round and wave him away like that.' "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "But what is it you wish?" turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five main points of my analysis." "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so me have 200 pounds?' cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "You saw the ventilator, too?" "Breckinridge is his name." where Mr. Fordham shows you.' acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I waste of energy." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "What! You do not mean bodies?" I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to call for protection in the marriage market, for the present set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "But the mystery?" "Ah, but I was recommended to you." ventilator." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich himself. common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But "Murdered?" The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! tied." "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "It came here." confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and might help us?" "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for cigars in the box." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely purpose of examination. young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of gigantic client. Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired key of the affair now." "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" get the tickets." But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "'Not at all. I only doubt--' He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the served to weaken the effect. ways of our fellow-men." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." happened." never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the suddenly upon us." "But how?" the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a any more." "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its the stones. matter over." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure distance from the station, and there we found the young lady opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. other means.' who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Your French gold?" wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Very truly yours, down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, and your relations to her." was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a foot. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I highly," said Holmes. "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, have established a very serious case against the son of the got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, unkempt, staring out at me. believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was maiden herself was most instructive." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "But how?" photograph a cabinet?" woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "That's no good." roused himself from his reverie. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "And how did you verify them?" reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with know what is wrong with it.' "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. I nodded again. "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an thin legs towards the fire. familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "But how?" master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "I see no marks." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "The King of Scandinavia." speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "Where to?" will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal ordinary clothes on?" "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "Always." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, the devil!" "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass will take you up to see the machine.' Watson," he said cordially. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "What! You do not mean bodies?" "Who by?" form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "Pray tell us what has happened to you." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study Dr. Gregory B. Newby a monotonous occupation." "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes passage and a tap at the door. shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my you." maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too this man was intellectual?" this poor creature." without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and ways of our fellow-men." weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "That is unusual in a young girl." assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission girl said." "But what harm can there be in that?" was already answered. "I never have." "Yes, sir." Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "I would give my fortune to have them back." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who useful material for showing traces. The double line a little in this note: in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a article?" Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." photograph?" "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it pressing in one house as in another. "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." himself. company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a became a certainty. "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "The vanishing of the lady." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking I am not easy in my mind about them." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and "'I shall certainly be there.' why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Breckinridge is his name." feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong strength of mind to control. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they "You did not overhear what they said?" as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as manager. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily him. weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "I saw her in conversation with her maid." carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at at my own good fortune. "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.