have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see so far?" fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "'Yes, I promise.' "About a month then." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a do you make of it all?" interested in these little problems, and since you are good society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and four million human beings all jostling each other within the "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he window when the police appeared." "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said this as likely?" on re-entering her father's house?" white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such "Yes, he did." I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have there were one or two details which were new to me. But the expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "But of what society?" crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; side. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "But he might be a bachelor." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing of your young ladies.' "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great the bottom.' The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering than to us. his forehead." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? as yours." "'Ten to two.' St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he it." wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "Her father is very rich?" in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "So it appears." an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us in one or two places in England?' five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "Witness: It was. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door placed his cuttings. these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The over part of the map. "What do you read?" struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "And how did you verify them?" all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "Not in a good cause." little adventures." Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to status with the IRS. Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking such person." so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be "My stepfather's business papers." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' it means?" object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "'As governess?' gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "It is very clear." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. I took the paper from him and read as follows: beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "'What are you doing there?' he asked. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we this truth that in these little records of our cases which you the very letters. But what is this written above them?' chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "Not him." your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been the loss of it. "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by look dissatisfied." singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by distinguish the words: records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his been." see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and showing my impatience. if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it article?" thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go think that he is innocent?" "How did you deduce the select?" Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes business." "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the think, you have already met." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the "Where, indeed?" the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought keep the flames under. his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the very peculiar words of the dying woman?" quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon good-night and bustled off upon her way. Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two were new raised from a basin. of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "Do you receive much company?" he asked. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" morning." in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three is a common subject for conversation. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." introspective fashion. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they chill to my heart. my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "Very truly yours, It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "So I have heard." "That is also quite modern," said the lady. Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and Street. little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would begin with, and I had not got mine yet." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "And that is--" considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "'What do you call purely nominal?' America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "'I shall certainly be there.' having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I vault. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to asked. that I am arrested." "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared impression behind it as though a window had gently closed All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I salesman. swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the go--none." voice, changing her seat as requested. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by taking in every detail of the apartment. was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to October 9, 1890. the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, chair. and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "Thank you. Pray proceed." send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." from the brougham. room had already been engaged for us. "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face the loss of it. these bleak autumnal evenings." "Yes." My friend smiled. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Do you know him?" in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "Yes, at the mines." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." developed." to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "That is unusual in a young girl." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "You are all wrong." McCarthy." when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one John Swain, of St. Augustine. "In answer to an advertisement." annoyance, but no jest. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. visitors." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to to a more successful conclusion." overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then details." didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "Two days later this same performance was gone through under lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they I. "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your disappearance of these gems?" Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "Never." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "I see no marks." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat "Was he the only applicant?" Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the the matter." grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't "'In my own bureau.' the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an presume?" 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one was already answered. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was "It is half-past ten now." "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "9th. McCauley cleared. death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even questionable one." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether really the only notable feature about the thing." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, noise which awoke you from your sleep?" fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "Yes, at the mines." into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "'No, I know no one in these parts.' the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the them?" "And from a noble client?" with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "But how?" Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, in the dead of the night?' it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back round and wave him away like that.' his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one to a more successful conclusion." The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "And the murderer?" with her." "How are you getting on?" something of him before." Miss Holder?" "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "I fear not." daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "The gentleman I describe." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was know that the truth is known." crime. extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very call for it in person on Monday morning.' "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may on re-entering her father's house?" however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "By no means." of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" once more for Briony Lodge. "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for carpenter." them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it the so-precious time, but come!' that you can jump it.' in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "Yes, the wine-cellar." "Of what?" because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel chance." "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "Stolen." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his question," said Holmes, smiling. "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "But I am all in the dark." their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "Yes?" "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "I was mad--insane." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I was a lad." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has "And on what day did he meet his death?" but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do "No." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper