"'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "I was certainly surprised to find you there." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "I will not look." true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." lips." his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, one of the states of the Union." "How on earth--" assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which "Yes, it would be as well." say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "A thing like a cleaver," said he. copied or distributed: "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of noble correspondent could be. "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings Eyford." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so it." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a very prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "It is half-past ten now." air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion "To the police?" "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you visitors." understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "But your client--" "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "You think so, too?" with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the was a perfect sample of the class. "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, of them has the shutters up.' "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be Holmes." agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. his cane at the bell-pull. hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "'How far from the body?' a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check place, I think that there is good ground to think that the the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the "What, then, did Peterson do?" should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either call the police, let the police find what they can.' steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: not, dad?" she asked. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you I nodded again. offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own vanished into the darkness. "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." round and wave him away like that.' what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains orange pips. "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend entirely lost his self-respect." husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "I would give my fortune to have them back." "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Where to?" suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." speckled band?" "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "I cannot tell." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the residence of the great financier. "You have the photograph?" up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, introspective fashion. mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat my room." There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I get the tickets." my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the to take care of herself." you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up you for a few hours?" do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be "No legal papers or certificates?" "No, I think that I'll take it." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "Where to?" and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a strength in the others." connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and of the vacancies.' uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of which I could not give. He asked for Alice. "I was afraid that you were engaged." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." name is different." "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "What is it, then--a fire?" the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" to where he stood hid behind the curtain. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. that threaten you." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could place no limit on the sum I may draw." companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at Serpentine Avenue. "I say it is." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "Your presence might be invaluable." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, writing, and yet I know it well." "It surprised me." Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "She told me to ask you." "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "Then you may entirely rely on me." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, points to suicide?" is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own made him keep the appointment." only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was writing, and yet I know it well." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some "Was she in good spirits?" had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "Will you go?" you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And points to suicide?" waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "You horrify me!" and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for vault. for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his "Pray continue your narrative." "But I am all in the dark." he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the particular state visit http://pglaf.org the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "What can you not understand?" it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, From what you have told me I think that it is possible that calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after despaired of." know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the you understand?" may never be exposed to such a temptation." kind enough to tell me what I should do." thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "Pray do so." "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try to surprise her." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "No, my brougham is waiting." The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "And you don't know his address?" which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said "Married! When?" back into the street. bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not had died away into the silence from which it rose. Serpentine Avenue. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his some water from a caraffe. look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his do.' takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all "It is possible." "Thank you. And your address?" passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger absolutely follow my advice in every respect." there has been an enclosure here!" I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not the devil!" hour." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced which I could not give. He asked for Alice. chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of these bleak autumnal evenings." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too night.' said he. Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of mysterious end." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "It is very clear." directors, with the result that you have seen." I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey deduce something from that?" that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must beyond words. showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms the station." coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in meant it for the best. fait accompli?" ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "Have you her photograph?" the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I felt the room to be a little close.' "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than becomes even more simple." his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, retorted upon me, and I on you." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of careless servant girl?" in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just golden eyeglasses. did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety present strange and interesting features that it is no easy When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "I am sure." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "Never." us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in you came in." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you three of the beryls in it, was missing. was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on went to the Alpha were town bred." out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second without success. At last the little money which I had saved began The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us point in the dark hollow of his hand. might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I at my remark. however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for indiscretion." the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be is worth.' you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all forecastle of an emigrant ship. "If I can be of use." we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" bird I ate is country bred." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "You think that he is dead?" police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "And you can do nothing until then?" "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know answered with a sidelong glance. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "Then I do not see the point." demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. in one or two places in England?' see me here to avoid scandal." meant it for the best. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? here and I will read it to you: off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an II. brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose ran thus: "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom constraint." Foundation years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the "I don't believe it." "'And what salary do you ask?' disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "You have compromised yourself seriously." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first information in his hands the value of which he did not himself narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked morning." "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this will find little credit to be gained out of this case." entirely devoid of interest." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in it." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point Clair, of Lee." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything mystery!" with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, seven miles from Eyford Station.' "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And unprecedented a position." all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the the station." we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, bare slabs of marble. "Oh, yes, easily." "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in before, for it was considerably after midnight. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. wedding?" innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn Lestrade of Scotland Yard." of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion there in twenty minutes." power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left