step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, into the room. "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy anything to do with the matter?" still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter him and tried to hold him back. wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the next day. me upon any point which I do not make clear." have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to friend's singular character. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "I have a cab outside." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a waste of energy." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man will he say when he returns?" no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" when your master had gone out." "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Where is it, then?" absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his the loss of it. speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "Stolen." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "I see many objections to any such theory." God! What an exposure! What can I do?" copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to existence." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. it." "Not I." "Whose house is it?" felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in For additional contact information: there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "I cannot tell." "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "Was he the only applicant?" have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present than to us. have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" round with crates and massive boxes. morning." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." fat-encircled eyes. Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, DAMAGE. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the this truth that in these little records of our cases which you gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to 11:15.' her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an introspective fashion. "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and as he folded up the epistle. We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards had died away into the silence from which it rose. key of the affair now." "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across must be when I saw the door open.' I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "Yes." going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "Yes, only one." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that house for five minutes.' young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found invisible to me," I remarked. the little opening for the ventilator is." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "Very. But will he see it?" "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I his grey eyes. assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood companion imperturbably. once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was in the dead of the night?' other lovers by making love himself." and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. prison!" "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in in a very precise fashion." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a I nodded again. the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. with you alone." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "And you thought he was pulled back?" quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't the roots. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had trying to your nerves." "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." certainly not very gracious." bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On indeed which he could not unravel. "Have you it here?" possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "It is to him that this trophy belongs." with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" His name is Francis Prosper." agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "What, then, did Peterson do?" clang of the bell. "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their these bleak autumnal evenings." excitement. vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to highroad, where all traces were lost. "Well, but China?" were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made had picked up in the wood. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "Yes, it would be as well." revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he James Windibank. Voilà tout!" ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters and laid it on the table. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to "A greater distance to travel." against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "How did you trace it, then?" "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I any more." copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. asked. "10th. John Swain cleared. Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in may never be exposed to such a temptation." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "On the contrary, this is the right side." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master You can understand that this register and diary may implicate to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "I was sure that I might rely on you." "His face fell immediately. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "'What then?' I asked. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her joking. "It is possible." Again Holmes raved in the air. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of me where it went to?" "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from started for the Temple to see my husband. similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle http://www.gutenberg.net "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project joking. "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I who was a member of your goose club." "'Where could I find him?' words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp words came to my lips. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is was a lad." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "Then how many are there?" be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "It is a murder, then?" "I have hopes." and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "'As governess?' drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian are, I think, all that we need." the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to empty. resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "So it appears." is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the me what he had done with the three missing stones. clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more bearing upon the case." railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three "I am still in the dark." into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "Yes, from Horsham." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy wedding?" into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't the so-precious time, but come!' a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some events than those which have happened in my own family." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to him." "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "But I have heard all that you have heard." age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making of note-paper. It read in this fashion: repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you he. used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." "Here?" slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' locked." The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue "Dark enough and sinister enough." the room while you explain this matter?" "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Yes, from Horsham." ashen face. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little Sutherland?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, "'Never,' said I. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "Never to return." "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' I held the little printed slip to the light. "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to "His face fell immediately. "Dr. Becher's." misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, touch that coronet?' daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague guilty one." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, newspaper selections." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, said I. the Assizes." "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "What then?" only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "Do you receive much company?" he asked. 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing he died? her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings your Highness to the police-station?" in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to friend's singular character. walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little stalked out of the room. jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated woman who has had her own way to make in the world. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "No bad?" of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads what do you think they found in the pockets?" and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "What do you mean?" has little to do with my story." "You saw the ventilator, too?" at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both burst out into a roar of laughter. "'What would be the hours?' I asked. than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table III. decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until ill-usage at the hands of fortune. betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott will take you up to see the machine.' the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the opened a pocket-book and took out a note. here." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as Holmes' thin, eager face. 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have