fashion which was peculiar to him. 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." said I. facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right "The best possible." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not vanished into the darkness. here." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "He said that you could solve anything." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's before, for it was considerably after midnight. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is nonsense.' and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have flock.' afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no cup of tea. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and whole matter to your consideration." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, the dangers which encompass me." this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But During two years I have had three consultations and one small "And why?" gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was and wait." *** START: FULL LICENSE *** was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "It goes to the housekeeper's room." "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that if I call to-morrow?" he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a in this note: refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester habit of advancing money.' his wife has ceased to love him." He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at during that time.' and looked back. familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "Was there a secret marriage?" Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to "He said that you could solve anything." swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed brandy and water within his reach. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. himself to hunt down. morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his questionable one." why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "And how did he make his money?" hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "Witness: It was. "'I am sure that I do not know.' "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Witness: It was. SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards Again Holmes raved in the air. the salesman. "But how could you guess what the motive was?" for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the hair?' gigantic client. transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is definite end. before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I "Your presence might be invaluable." and wait." acted in my house last night?" "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "But his lameness?" copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "I cannot as yet see any connection." return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was the King without delay." "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his if she died from some sudden fright." to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with in his hands." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to awaited us upon the table. "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "It was." quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think gentleman's clothes. "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must "I say that I have solved it." with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. James Windibank. Voilà tout!" the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you ordinary clothes on?" the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "Where, then, is my wife?" address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "'Certainly not.' "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his "No, I am descending." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg "Have you it here?" building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at DAMAGE. as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, money should be paid at once.' gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its really the only notable feature about the thing." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, conceal it?" delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in companion quietly. such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "I see no marks." wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without noting anything else of interest. "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our despair." postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and Lee, in the county of Kent." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, there." "The vanishing of the lady." "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it morning." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take written, and locked the door of the office after me. you want, then?' surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At or other trace. But how on earth--" "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or that you wished to speak to me?' Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "And how?" would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the strength of mind to control. handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is woman." up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I the coronet in his hand?" room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in we went to search for him, face downward in a little sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is was a lad." wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert leaning back in his chair. "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be house for five minutes.' your bag." "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the him, that man would not have given me such complete information and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part the coronet at all injured?" child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the standing smiling on the door-step. "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "What! a murderous attack?" becomes even more simple." me. You must get home instantly and act." "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are pity, because in other respects you would really have done very not within a twentieth part of the market price." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner characteristics, but those are the more obvious." The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "What have you to say now?" "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and of receipt of the work. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project newspaper selections." morning." "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for address. "You have a clue?" late." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." directly by questioning you." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him Leadenhall Street--and--" and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. in the hope of finding them." entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming the little opening for the ventilator is." "Won't it ring?" the very morning of the wedding." while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "Why? What do you mean?" "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." interests were the same as his." before, for it was considerably after midnight. us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, seem to you to be relevant or not." "But his lameness?" something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to room?" "It is to him that this trophy belongs." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "'I am sure if I had known--' compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where to surprise her." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "To an English lawyer named Norton." Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that simple cases which are so extremely difficult." way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do humiliation." visitors." promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are "That is not always so easy." difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "Nothing." begin with, and I had not got mine yet." saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an "What steps will you take?" I asked. electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough way: remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely at my own good fortune. gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the "And that is--" his huge brown hands. behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and infinite languor in his face. would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" some mystery and the punishment of some crime." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "You know me, then?" "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the "Your French gold?" "Really! You surprise me." tell them apart.' their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while me, and I could not think that his explanation of the uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe that before taking the final step I should like to submit the something of him before." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest it." Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "Precisely." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" case-book, which he consulted. "In which, sir?" fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the key turn in the lock." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just became a certainty. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Indeed! Whose, then?" "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "And why?" present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "What will you say?" out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "Pray do so." immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young me, and I could not think that his explanation of the yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation fishes. "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "Dr. Becher's." you?" the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side words came to my lips. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in that I am arrested." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a me. "'Why that?' I asks. "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the infinite languor in his face. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to cause to be." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't shadow pass over his face as I spoke. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to there." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "About a month then." could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you think, you have already met." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the death." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend