rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have do.' front of me. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth more solid." "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, *** START: FULL LICENSE *** should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "Game for a morning drive?" "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the again on its way. you." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "Oh, fresh and glossy." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' "About a month then." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what come either from the window or the door. My attention was even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. even so self-evident a thing as that." "Yes." 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "His face fell immediately. "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. were wasted." "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad "Why did you beat the pavement?" has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "When did it break out?" all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "Yes, he did." I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing "But it has twice been burgled." A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your Again Holmes raved in the air. been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the walking." Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "And the murderer?" "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I as he folded up the epistle. you." the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which works. See paragraph 1.E below. meant it for the best. "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Nothing." demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had congratulate you again." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." the Red-headed League." it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his this man was intellectual?" that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the head. So long, then!" adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he gentleman's clothes. "My opinion is in no way altered." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted made his money." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been details should find their way into the papers. Inspector "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and "Of Friday, June 19th." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no companion imperturbably. solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had three fields round his house, and there he would take his "You are all wrong." you." "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution figure." set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from sneer upon his pale face. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my joking. of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house on in his house." "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before four million human beings all jostling each other within the "Tired-looking or fresh?" 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near one of them." of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged answered with a sidelong glance. fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they appeared upon the scene." him!" and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my McCarthy's innocence. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "'You cannot say what it was?' hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On third from London." will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. carriage. It was a chestnut." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. vault. "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought that he has suffered." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "The Coroner: What do you mean? him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Get out!" said he. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known undoubtedly my uncle's." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "'How far from the body?' "What shall I do?" am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" she used." has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Nothing." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." I approached. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into you give your casting vote to?" "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough brought there to personate someone, and the real person is astonishment. common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But works. grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." down from London to inquire more deeply into it." threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "You have but to name it." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of felt the room to be a little close.' important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "Yes." Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination fire. You quite follow me?" I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose quick march!" I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "'Yes, sir.' I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little tear off another piece?' fuss that is made over them." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." friend's singular character. river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "Dr. Becher's." indeed happy." Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices ways of our fellow-men." rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, McCarthy." seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that 'please.'" "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "My opinion is in no way altered." hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "The King of Scandinavia." would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open Young McCarthy must be got off, however." "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love place, I think that there is good ground to think that the indeed happy." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "I assure you that I am in your hands." right! Sit down and let us talk it over." what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the returning from some small jollification and was making his way "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary corner of the building. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the exactly what you advise." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks prepare for the new role I have to play." for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of when your master had gone out." was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good and a shock of very red hair. family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been Farm upon the left." about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord your Highness to the police-station?" "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to be sorry for having acted so harshly." telegram would bring me down to your help." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of province." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an once more to my work. quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. of his shoulders. A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two the armchair which I pushed forward for him. heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists "Was she in good spirits?" the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but me. You must get home instantly and act." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner tail." with her." "One?" read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of distance from the station, and there we found the young lady invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "Of what?" and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud joking. "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Then I do not see the point." the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "But it has twice been burgled." any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the useful material for showing traces. The double line a little matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "Nearly eleven." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had bird of prey. points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "But you have hopes?" client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own stalked out of the room. I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "By all means." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew amused." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our leaning back in his chair. not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away plantation.' and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from morning." have I gained?" "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has or in danger--" and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "What then?" into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, seen the man in the road." Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court "It is very kind of you." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, "That is unusual in a young girl." noble correspondent could be. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this only touch the interest." thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. 1.E.9. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "I have seen the police." morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out them present such singular features as the strange train of "'What do you call purely nominal?' she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At other means.' colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" "'How far from the body?' I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so with frightened eyes at his accuser. prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if direction." cigar and let me expound." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "And leave your case unfinished?" tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if "But how?" perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in the take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and