Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three dramatic, in fact." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. the very letters. But what is this written above them?' goes." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it some place of shelter and let the county police know what has Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his hand, madam?" or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the "The landlord of the Alpha." which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat friends, not even his own brother. headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "Of what day?" "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "What! Had he lost his wife?" the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no strange features which were associated with the two crimes which There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "Murdered?" to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly useful material for showing traces. The double line a little known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and Project Gutenberg-tm works. called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that papers must be those that are destroyed.' "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle I was concerned in it." broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' that he will be back before evening." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. rat could hardly pass through." had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "10th. John Swain cleared. "An enemy?" beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "'Ample.' look upon these things in a different way." "A thing like a cleaver," said he. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Quite so." "'Yes, sir.' for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all the ceiling. "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my works. See paragraph 1.E below. not come at once?" Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry "Perfectly so." most interesting one." of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "What shall I do?" did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at not, dad?" she asked. avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." be there in time for your coming." "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he sound at heart." but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon ceremony." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. "No sign of it?" gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been more terrible than the truth. down in his armchair and closing his eyes. immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice meant." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make a few minutes he said that it would be all right. himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "Absolutely?" it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the here and I will read it to you: seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "Of what?" case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and room?" is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you "I am to be neutral?" thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in "Very. But will he see it?" grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than "But you have hopes?" served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get chamber." "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade to some other building. with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "'You doubt its value?' he asked. pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I just called myself is not exactly my own." chance." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes the bottom.' usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally the address that was given us in the advertisement. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a the armchair which I pushed forward for him. This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young "'Stolen!' he cried. is," said he presently: "And why?" was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you walking." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "I cannot tell." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "If so, much may have happened between." feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "Not particularly." receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "What of the rat, then?" "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And him!" brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. "Could he throw no light?" gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "Married! When?" effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest noting anything else of interest. and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and forecastle of an emigrant ship. them present such singular features as the strange train of and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "It is possible." logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' details should find their way into the papers. Inspector want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you furiously. the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet I have it here in my museum." 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I business?" set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that carried out of court." "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that during that time.' system of imprisonment?" action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike crime. away in different directions, and I went off to make my own It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an felt the room to be a little close.' rooms." minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as see me here to avoid scandal." Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been "Because he was handy and would come cheap." what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too go back?" of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and sake, don't!" very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "'And what salary do you ask?' often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in overpowering excitement and concern. came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "No." Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "Game for a morning drive?" broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting congratulate you again." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. direction." of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "I promise," said Holmes. "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in imbecility!" he cried. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as II. he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in call for it in person on Monday morning.' "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination man. have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day his grey eyes. happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was call for it in person on Monday morning.' remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently with you alone." "Ah, but I was recommended to you." Holmes. "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. to tell." examination of the premises, but without finding anything which Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "And how did you find out?" before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer will he say when he returns?" should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried are, and they are waiting for us." seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "No, I had a dozen." "My last client of the sort was a king." forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while man. I know him from the photograph." 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small gone. even so self-evident a thing as that." in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite is," said he presently: glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it "She walked into the breakfast-room." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her when you have done it." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same suggested at once that there must be a communication between the Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "I cannot say that I have." estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his "Did he not advertise?" did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a murdered man." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how such attractions and accomplishments?' bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" "Your sister is dead, then?" upon the sideboard." London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which the side-table." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really infinite languor in his face. "I saw her in conversation with her maid." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your Miss Holder?" was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Very truly yours, note?" "I should like to see him very much." "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the she slowly sank and died without having recovered her the general public were present, then?" any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London and looked back. your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at individual and becomes the badge of a society." "Absolutely none." "I will do it." said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, three of the beryls in it, was missing. "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "'You cannot say what it was?' corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, might have a private word with us. together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the said he. him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "No." days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "And you can do nothing until then?" test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless "I have come for advice." and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "But his left-handedness." him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me,