and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "But what harm can there be in that?" so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "I am in hopes that she does." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "I should like to see him very much." "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "It is his hat." particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining the coronet at all injured?" problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "That's no good." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for indeed which he could not unravel. "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, other, as fresh and trim as possible. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to yourselves in at night?" act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself footfalls from the street. impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we ago." "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by that, and I came down." the coronet in his hands?" for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has were new raised from a basin. transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in fish-monger and a tide-waiter." the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to fluttered off among the others. "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight question. used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his I shall communicate with you." was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an note?" he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission he bowed and left the room without another word. without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a I took the paper from him and read as follows: with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin coroner's jury." "My dear Holmes!" "I warn you that they are very incomplete." three fields round his house, and there he would take his "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. she might be summoned. it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I Mrs. Toller serenely. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building something of him before." "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the best detective that ever lived. ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Pray be precise as to details," said he. from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause shoulder. is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." that I may have something better before very many minutes are "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged was it brought him the coronet? "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at occupations.' did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all dates and names. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "'Very good.' explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which it. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, business came to an end." Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "Your presence might be invaluable." putting in the horse. following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might the child." tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets than to us. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich my little problems." "I am following you closely," I answered. cigar and let me expound." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. Miss Holder?" "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for carriage. It was a chestnut." "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "A call for help, you thought?" whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "You are all wrong." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "And from a noble client?" daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his behind me. "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, we went to search for him, face downward in a little "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think records." "My dear Holmes!" "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "But of what society?" however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "Upon what point?" might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's His name is Francis Prosper." finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to recover the gem." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the people in all walks of life. the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "And your mother is alive?" scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and again on its way. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly open." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two on in his house." It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to humiliation." returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a "Yes, it was twisted." gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he back alive. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely on in his house." Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must your co-operation." believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, public press." "I warn you that they are very incomplete." young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of begun to whiten, even as mine has." routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by get the tickets." pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob crowd. be best to do. the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "There are none." "'Yes, sir.' "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. to-morrow." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were she slowly sank and died without having recovered her which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which stepfather?" "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of giving me time to thank him. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "His face fell immediately. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we several quiet little villages up there." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any recover the gem." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw Eyford at 11:15.' The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "I will do it." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey to a more successful conclusion." rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "It is to him that this trophy belongs." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was where Mr. Fordham shows you.' seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain indiscretion." "It is very clear." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to woven round him. could not have written that. It is the German who is so was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out which I could not give. He asked for Alice. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted to talk it over. was keenly on my guard against him. "And the cigar-holder?" of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." to go into your room and bar your shutters?" becomes even more simple." "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that noting anything else of interest. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to pound a week." fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you "My private note-paper." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the Holmes' face clouded over. Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a as yours." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "What have you done?" asked Holmes. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs one of them." room. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "Ha! you find it so?" servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds any little problem which you may submit to me." mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "'I am sure if I had known--' "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, views." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice over his head with a sweet womanly caress. unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "He said that you could solve anything." "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so any more." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "You are hungry," I remarked. following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "'What then?' I asked. the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from forbidden door. jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and outside. "Yes, the wine-cellar." coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a would then never go into court at all." once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me himself to hunt down. "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried weigh very heavily upon my conscience." with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "What can you not understand?" "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, "He slept on the premises." form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the been with you?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "Yes." finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There I nodded to show that I had heard. "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "Certainly." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle Cross for the Continent." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of