"Yes, there are nearly always some there." heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin with her." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one meanly of me." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his in darkness. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I ill-usage at the hands of fortune. time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "But you can know nothing of this?" does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he "Ample." During two years I have had three consultations and one small has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in rat could hardly pass through." "This photograph!" "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open be sorry for having acted so harshly." "You think that he is dead?" fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in then?" I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that my special province." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "Quite so." "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when 1.E.9. relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "Yes." recover the gem." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "'How far from the body?' friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "'Tell me all about it,' said I. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was posted to-day." "Then I am your man." peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have o'clock is it?" "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you disappearance of the bride.'" the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "What can it mean?" I gasped. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "Pray do so." "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "But you have hopes?" very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful which are rolled in Rotterdam." pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "'Never.' "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "In answer to an advertisement." child?' "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was http://gutenberg.net/license). still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you because she had spent so short a time in this country that she would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "On your arm?" this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the "The murder was done with it." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, people in all walks of life. The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open bachelor.' comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my friends, not even his own brother. "What! You do not mean bodies?" you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "And for present expenses?" in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on the loss of it. "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by place no limit on the sum I may draw." conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had be best to do. about here speaks of his kindness to him." a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned could not account in any way for the presence of the missing with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "You have but to name it." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his intimate personal affairs in this public manner." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a had formerly been in part my own. surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "I came to find a friend." have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" one else, I think." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a acquaintance?" laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "How many? I don't know." lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY here." the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, fishes. resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning comes from the middle window." reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be his grey eyes. "What then?" "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. I approached. "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of made him keep the appointment." "Then I do not see the point." face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." flock.' "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "BALLARAT." The note was undated, and without either signature or address. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. in a very precise fashion." nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, "My Mary? Impossible!" lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have "You were travelling in the States?" pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." upon a handsome competence. it were putty." hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "There is the writing." banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with did not hear it also.' "Then, as to money?" meant." quickly through a disagreeable task. fattened it expressly for you.' yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, that he will be back before evening." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, that before taking the final step I should like to submit the houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. seem to you to be relevant or not." tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said you in yours." American. Then who could this American be, and why should he took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. carried out of court." stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his putting in the horse. 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case hair?' and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. said he. you." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over I think that I could be of assistance to you." Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her already been minutely examined." "Here?" it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must more solid." the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter Does that suggest anything?" my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident I leave." "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of place of silver." the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the This is what he says: silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "But you would not advise me to refuse?" McCarthy." imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the or other trace. But how on earth--" the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "How long did she speak to this Alice?" depend upon your compliance." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "I will, Miss Turner." "Stolen." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our room had already been engaged for us. "No good news?" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to me where it went to?" gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low just ask you whether you had heard it.' 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his nights." "You have it, sir, just as it happened." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the fish-monger and a tide-waiter." been deceived." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is handed it to him. appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right your equipment. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to paper in the air. wall." When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually to me. "If I can be of use." photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "That you are never beaten." this man was intellectual?" said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is certainly do as you advise." "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense case-book, which he consulted. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. yet." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he his fortune, and I went back to pa. we went to search for him, face downward in a little remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "And is that all?" been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "But what will you do?" Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it sound at heart." "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "But you were on a friendly footing?" acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several bill, which interests me deeply." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes it. "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. said he at last. exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "But she could not love him." "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on taking in every detail of the apartment. would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for late." unclasping of his long thin hands. and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my writing, and yet I know it well." earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as the bed, and you in that chair." and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your train from Paddington which would bring you there at about brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the has little to do with my story." absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "No." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by in this note: in. with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "Deserted you?" was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this which we had just quitted. "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring husband's writing, madam." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a ran thus: why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are,