"'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest as the one I chose?' down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I "Why? What do you mean?" found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had of fine shops and stately business premises that they really it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It Countess of Morcar's?" whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its of his shoulders. have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "What of the rat, then?" sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing was it brought him the coronet? lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you that you wished to speak to me?' "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you "If so, much may have happened between." who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "But how?" with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the "No." found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "A client, then?" into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. all that?" making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us and glanced through. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or man. I know him from the photograph." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in instituted." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be depend upon your compliance." "None." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the letters?" wall." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so are windows in it, of course?" which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have goes." cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." some water from a caraffe. "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I closing the door. whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. power." and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making or other trace. But how on earth--" "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "No legal papers or certificates?" Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature "You have it, sir, just as it happened." tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "It is to him that this trophy belongs." A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. help us in this matter." prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I will probably result in a speedy clearing up of this very clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "'And the work?' to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." into the bag, and made for the door. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble kindly on the shoulder. "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong "The Cedars?" introspective fashion. "I am all attention, madam." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to fatally injured? in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" showing my impatience. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an tear off another piece?' years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." forecastle of an emigrant ship. Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see a little more before I quite committed myself. five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two posted to-day." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "And how did you find out?" house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down 11:15.' another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and upon an income of about 60 pounds." I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his which are rolled in Rotterdam." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "'Never,' said I. realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this my special province." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I Street. "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises furiously. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable reach." "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "Why did you pick him?" relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own and that he would see to anything that turned up. gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know just called myself is not exactly my own." again before evening." sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk bore every mark of being an average commonplace British pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "But you would not advise me to refuse?" outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian the roots. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "Yes?" "'Where to?' the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "Yes, he did." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked will not take me long to tell. stepfather?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the memory. evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging guilty parties." "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "Very much so." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature that?' eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I fat-encircled eyes. in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "About a month then." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "About a month then." the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "And how did he make his money?" were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, coroner's jury." understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "Stoke Moran?" said he. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "Has he come with you to-night?" in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the train.' what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. mysterious end." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "And why?" stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "No bad?" should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to The note was undated, and without either signature or address. The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little all-comprehensive glances. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "'Stolen!' he cried. was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "What office?" "You did not overhear what they said?" state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "Yes." upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is investigation." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven out." plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer woman." which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your anything to do with the matter?" me. You must get home instantly and act." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the be sorry for having acted so harshly." slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is prepare for the new role I have to play." "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "To an end?" this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "And from a noble client?" "To an end?" awkward doing business with an alias." the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss six. Come in!" "My last client of the sort was a king." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," certainly do as you advise." nothing of it?" "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate confronted him. and a shock of very red hair. the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a guilty one." the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "Yes, sir." "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against of this gang." dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously details." "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was best detective that ever lived. offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, know that the truth is known." in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my that I am arrested." you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in together. "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "I never have." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish prepare for the new role I have to play." could go. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." of Fenchurch Street." the stones. smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived outbreak?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and which it had come upon my father." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back "He said that you could solve anything." annoyance, but no jest. "We must sit without light. He would see it through the gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know had a long day." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "You think so, too?" a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the that the gas is not laid on in his house?" pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "How did you trace it, then?" the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "In which, sir?" lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I "What shall I do?" Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with direction." companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to had formerly been in part my own. they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are new acquaintance to Baker Street. lost his Christmas dinner." "Stolen, then." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a your own bird, so if you wish--" speckled band?" rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "At what time?" I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "How long did she speak to this Alice?" remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to to tell." Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on "Why? What do you mean?" "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this down from London to inquire more deeply into it." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these the window, rose as we entered. "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, really the only notable feature about the thing." "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "I was sure that I might rely on you." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "Yes, certainly." old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "'Yes, sir.' All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "I am sure." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' "Certainly." already referred to. morning." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where congenial hunt. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "'A dozen yards or so.'