drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards the coroner come to?" I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away the ceiling. the salesman. possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his his wife has ceased to love him." drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "I say that I have solved it." "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. once more on the important position which you have been fortunate hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which upon an income of about 60 pounds." finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and an introduction to him?" fact, we may call it conclusive." "Won't it ring?" world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." new acquaintance to Baker Street. questionable one." rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest "She will not sell." breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in child?' home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "My private note-paper." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two again." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he away in different directions, and I went off to make my own I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a question. fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, and the colonel ushered me in. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the at home. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "What steps will you take?" I asked. "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and points in connection with it which never have been, and probably mysterious business." the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "'Then let me do so?' McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door sound at heart." Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think the tragedy. however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. the little opening for the ventilator is." banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "Where, indeed?" into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, fattened it expressly for you.' should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just shag which I had seen upon the previous night. Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though mysterious business." over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of infinite languor in his face. "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He really the only notable feature about the thing." fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a crackling voice. "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "What of the rat, then?" 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to since then to throw any light upon what became of him." of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" the address that was given us in the advertisement. lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it politicians who had been sent down from the North. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from six. Come in!" for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged 1.F. a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this most interesting one." and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was his face. consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "Eh? What was that?" The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "My opinion is in no way altered." where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are "So it appears." at a side door. "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, the streets of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, his fortune, and I went back to pa. attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third the house with me." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "'Not at all. I only doubt--' not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand troubles have been weighing upon his mind. girl said." nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he never to learn it at all." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help "Tired-looking or fresh?" all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "No." enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered definite end. "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." was lame." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. not, dad?" she asked. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone one which it was hard to resist. the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." be best to do. head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your six. Come in!" I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I Farm upon the left." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle him. "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close The telegram which we eventually received came late one night remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring "And you don't know his address?" surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "Yes." "Was he the only applicant?" Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the tassel actually lying upon the pillow. ordinary clothes on?" separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the closely." "Never." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch guilty parties." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "My opinion is in no way altered." was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "It surprised me." "Awake, Watson?" he asked. "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the residence of the great financier. other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as the matter?" "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry DISSOLVED. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in nonsense.' like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "Not social, then?" "Your sister is dead, then?" wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "How did you trace it, then?" woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the me." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" Holmes' face clouded over. submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven waste of energy." as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "Could he throw no light?" he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If case-book, which he consulted. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "Of Friday, June 19th." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "What, then, did Peterson do?" was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. that, and I came down." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, have not had my rubber." the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are father's place of business?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "Bought." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said young Openshaw's." he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The upon the shelf for the interim." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "Get out!" said he. thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the ran thus: it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, is so. I know all about McCarthy." "And how did you verify them?" not use it unless it is absolutely needed." in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. "To an end?" fuss that is made over them." "None." case before our client came into the room." very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "I don't believe it." hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "What! You do not mean bodies?" swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" "And the murderer?" "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you never will be, entirely cleared up. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "You saw the ventilator, too?" felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for speckled band?" is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the Holmes. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" one's self under obligations.' engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been cigars in the box." "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual for and were ordered to this address. case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat this truth that in these little records of our cases which you but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "How did you trace it, then?" the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. business matters.' suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord of them has the shutters up.' "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily to his chemical studies. away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his some city in a dream. "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it lamp. a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations in. without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "Eh? What was that?" dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the obstinate." "Was she in good spirits?" Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were trying to your nerves." came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these matter." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I of the way of danger. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a what do you think they found in the pockets?" silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, again, where I was soon asleep. he bowed and left the room without another word. from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my "BALLARAT." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by acquaintance?" Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with laugh and put his lips to my ear. have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before