chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, such attractions and accomplishments?' He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, in the hope of finding them." This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or yet." what these perils are?" "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "And you can do nothing until then?" My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "'What, the red-headed man?' Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "The gentleman I describe." go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. face and glided from the room. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. had picked up in the wood. status with the IRS. allusion to a rat. to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "That you are never beaten." hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. my little problems." doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "One horse?" interjected Holmes. the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient anything to do with the matter?" to go into your room and bar your shutters?" conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the that I may have something better before very many minutes are look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "I should like to see him very much." outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my to you." me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had depend upon my doing so.' But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones enter Dr. Roylott's room." As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "And help." would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "An enemy?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" his grey eyes. "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, the very letters. But what is this written above them?' Eyford." which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which begun to whiten, even as mine has." "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered works. See paragraph 1.E below. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of signal between you and your father? "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do to take care of herself." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two we went to search for him, face downward in a little "And how have you succeeded?" quickly through a disagreeable task. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of felt the room to be a little close.' lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "I am about to be married." "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our dead, shall be safe with us." willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' joking. had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic which it had come upon my father." been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her said I. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency to-night?" I asked. be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Imitated." me upon any point which I do not make clear." railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I open." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "There are none." could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband delighted to hear it," he said. nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "The rest you will leave in our hands." scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a touch that coronet?' have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug think you a quite exceptional woman." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and was a loud and authoritative tap. to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I prisoner's face. "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "To an English lawyer named Norton." "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "How did that help you?" and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. did not hear it also.' uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "By no means." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some the night.' "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible foresight and the moral retrogression?" I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery paper in the air. ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. papers diligently of late, have you not?" rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another a suggestive one." compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "But I have heard all that you have heard." remarked. time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you Literary Archive Foundation studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and "It missed him, then?" thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present a room. squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. like that before?" so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "A call for help, you thought?" any little problem which you may submit to me." our word." hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him said he. Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "My dear Holmes!" Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will minor matters until to-morrow." been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. few hundred pounds.' drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "What can it mean?" I gasped. concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "And how did you find out?" in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in remarked. opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "I promise," said Holmes. Clair, of Lee." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for the Friday. Was it to be in church?" waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "I do." tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I to talk it over. said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Thank you. Pray proceed." "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "My dear Holmes!" is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "No sign of it?" us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "What! You do not mean bodies?" reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at was the fact that his father should, according to his account, pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of dates and names. "Of Friday, June 19th." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. gone before you can get him to hospital." continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "Breckinridge is his name." "Not in a good cause." fasten all the windows?" "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then You want to know what became of those geese?" case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "But how did you gain them?" "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "One?" "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. nothing with him." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, affair. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid hair?' determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "'Never.' "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "9th. McCauley cleared. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "And when will you call?" "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no amused." Holmes' room. desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a him nearly every evening." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is clang of the bell. Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "Then the page we have seen--" "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are words came to my lips. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." experiences." an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the point in the dark hollow of his hand. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture with you alone." That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We During two years I have had three consultations and one small before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "Have you it here?" Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from rat could hardly pass through." "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something handed it to him. "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, to take care of herself." Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "No, I am descending." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and conversation I have gathered that they have been married about her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "I shall most certainly do so." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I this remarkable episode. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "Well, some hundreds of times." the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?"