river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the second." exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel "Dr. Becher's." any little problem which you may submit to me." complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy once more on the important position which you have been fortunate seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to chance." "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the green of the new foliage. chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass Holmes' thin, eager face. the Red-headed League." will he say when he returns?" God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an I shall communicate with you." clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven Literary Archive Foundation other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your that, and I came down." certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself them?" "About a month then." safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to "I should wish to." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend over here." "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain enter into my head. that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, the side-table." presented more singular features than that which was associated all that?" "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "In San Francisco, a year ago." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't to his chemical studies. and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is "Murdered?" place, I think that there is good ground to think that the bedroom door." entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "'And the work?' preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. letters?" the stones. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my asked. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been hereditary King of Bohemia." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "What! You do not mean bodies?" than to us. for the market.' my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "Pray do so." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "Yes." people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking horse could go." one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Tired-looking or fresh?" again before evening." I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to hopeless attempt at recovering them." of campaign. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point business." How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "Yes, sir." "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the upon a handsome competence. "Well." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "No bad?" the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been use an arc-and-compass breastpin." the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. trifles." "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had as noiselessly as she had come. seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." Miss Holder?" of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "I have my revolver," said I. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would carriage. It was a chestnut." "I cannot imagine." and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' at once, for I have only half an hour." "It may not come to that," said Holmes. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "Were they all fastened this morning?" pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, "'Where could I find him?' were new raised from a basin. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of murdered man." bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, there!' "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing companion quietly. national property. I was determined that the law should have its these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which noise which awoke you from your sleep?" laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "I cannot say that I have." "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into "Yes." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and his fortune, and I went back to pa. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb remarked. sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "My dear Holmes!" "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! the side-table." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some foot. The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some four million human beings all jostling each other within the of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body ordinary clothes on?" up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets to his chemical studies. small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really standing smiling on the door-step. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "How can you tell that?" were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" "'Quite sure, dad.' "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger vault. interested in these little problems, and since you are good called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, means taking possession of that which another person has a prior you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to gone. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last your bag." "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "I have solved it." call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured I was concerned in it." hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his the morning and make my own way in the world.' "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the already referred to. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." that you wished to speak to me?' speckled band?" precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you young Openshaw's." "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Your presence might be invaluable." "I cannot tell." near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who always that they were such commands as a lady might with how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and you?" despair." "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you October 9, 1890. King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." you." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he pictures, libraries, or plate. grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "In answer to an advertisement." "I say that I have solved it." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "Yes, sir." and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the me what he had done with the three missing stones. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we again." but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his my former friend and companion. upon a handsome competence. rooms." Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to occupations.' thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call cost them two and thirty pounds." found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the them?" Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, Sherlock Holmes took it up and opened the bureau. shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "There are none." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, quite distinctive." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "How do you know, then?" "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought country, and eventually married, without anyone having a than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "I cannot say that I have." into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it desk. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "What is it, then--a fire?" necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of gives a meaning to it." "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I cost them two and thirty pounds." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a foot. about. drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "And what then?" "There is the writing." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was it. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "But how did you gain them?" and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out everything which you would wish to know." "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her present." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so conclusions. "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major fluttered off among the others. "Where, then?" "What then?" "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been tear off another piece?' beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." situation." it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old have got?" man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the "Did you observe the colour?" station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "'Very good.' You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. past. but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH copied or distributed: "Stoke Moran?" said he. "And is that all?" the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the