"I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many father's place of business?" so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face husband's writing, madam." "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, throat." that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had one or two very singular points about this room. For example, also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Well?" confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in you?' legal crime." hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "I would give my fortune to have them back." grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "No, thank goodness, she did not." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. companion imperturbably. very old mansion. "Where, then, is my wife?" "You heard nothing yourself last night?" showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his walking." other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding envelope. be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "My dear Holmes!" where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George this as likely?" if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "What, then, did Peterson do?" squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "If so, much may have happened between." deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." to change my dress. "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he "ARAT," I read. hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "I warn you that they are very incomplete." to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "Yes." like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, as the one I chose?' Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "None. Neville wrote those words." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity "No." ready to-morrow?' smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior tell me that you intended to go into harness." best detective that ever lived. "Why did you pick him?" "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "You horrify me." merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added here." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed chamber." "Pray let us have it, for all that." said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the narrative." doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "9th. McCauley cleared. that I can to serve you." could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly my little problems." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for beg that you will break it off." pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "We were both in the photograph." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather the south-west, I see." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Get out!" said he. merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and wanted for ourselves." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "Why, what do you mean?" dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with "How many? I don't know." preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "You know me, then?" it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, "Then I can wait in the next room." keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we maid will bring up your coffee." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "No." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "That you are never beaten." them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "But his left-handedness." ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an "No, finished." hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "No, I had a dozen." third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in brought there to personate someone, and the real person is Watson," he said cordially. the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell "Then, how do you know?" "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. Clair, of Lee." "No, thank goodness, she did not." Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case confronted him. "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just to some other building. "What can you not understand?" meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his he. to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the cup of tea. "A client, then?" were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then confronted him. before, for it was considerably after midnight. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "What! a murderous attack?" hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. brandy and water within his reach. direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was conduct the inquiry." train from Paddington which would bring you there at about would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally God! What an exposure! What can I do?" that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "Nothing?" relation between them, and what the object of his repeated came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "But she could not love him." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his have got?" true." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "And leave your case unfinished?" this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "It is very kind of you." strong reason behind." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in nice household for a young lady." down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged "Yes?" the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest relief. "Have you her photograph?" "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same second window is the one that I jumped from." himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, to surprise her." bare slabs of marble. "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we present." "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "Your presence might be invaluable." cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had the loss of it. view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, tail." presume?" "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy photograph a cabinet?" I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of round and wave him away like that.' against a man in the prime of life?" protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "You have compromised yourself seriously." His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. brain must have something in it." "Then I shall certainly come." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." been lifted and conveyed somewhere." direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the The King stared at him in amazement. "And for present expenses?" had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he enter into my head. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." bore every mark of being an average commonplace British think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "I will try. What is it?" London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and developed." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the carpenter." in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is bell. Holmes whistled. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others obstinate." that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "'Never,' said I. fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with he. remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by prove to be little relation between the different incidents of princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the directors have had misgivings upon the subject." fear." anything to do with the matter?" said he, "my real name is James Ryder." orange pips. performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my instincts rose up against that laugh. My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they was shining brightly. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his to tackle the facts." Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in and put his glass in his pocket. "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to south, for the country is more deserted there." the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, and files of the old papers, following the future career of every Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "'About the same.' Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "What is it?" "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and lamp. thirty. introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "No. What a strange idea!" "I don't believe it." months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "No good news?" "I have solved it." well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are pierced for earrings?" were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "I will do it." faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do to talk it over. you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the to have that photograph." these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly coroner's jury." that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had quite distinctive." quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." fact, we may call it conclusive." business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "No?" But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those been." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what there were so many in the whole country as were brought together thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "But of what society?" "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. dear old homesteads?" "Certainly." body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my chance at all." "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" know all about it," he snarled. "Entirely." hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the there!' "Witness: Nothing definite. himself. this remarkable episode. which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to telegram would bring me down to your help." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned.