horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes these bleak autumnal evenings." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall might help us?" swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows someone who had been in Australia." we went to search for him, face downward in a little morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not undoubtedly my uncle's." gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they developed." brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "But he might be a bachelor." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that writers could invent nothing more crude." purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "Ah!" most interesting one." acquaintance?" it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "How long did she speak to this Alice?" part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black "I am armed." It may be so in this case, also." these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "I was certainly surprised to find you there." sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as http://gutenberg.net/license). course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." questioning and rather startled gaze. tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the meanly of me." without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a Project Gutenberg-tm works. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. locked." look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating lost his Christmas dinner." tightly behind him. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "Do you go out much in society?" that the gas is not laid on in his house?" he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" hardly wander." key turn in the lock." to surprise her." eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very the coroner come to?" "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our will he say when he returns?" them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds question," said Holmes, smiling. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by mystery." "But his lameness?" "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little a few minutes he said that it would be all right. thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Absolutely?" "And why in hopes?" obstinate." They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "Never." "'No, I know no one in these parts.' Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, I nodded again. read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and three of the beryls in it, was missing. its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I upon the white wrist. "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had woven round him. ways of our fellow-men." it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been dear old homesteads?" To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of crackling voice. shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the "On your arm?" means taking possession of that which another person has a prior "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this becomes even more simple." McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether had died away into the silence from which it rose. We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start round with crates and massive boxes. explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was something of him before." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." dead, shall be safe with us." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle sneer upon his pale face. bill, which interests me deeply." streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "The King of Scandinavia." reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside salesman. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a ourselves in the office." Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "Yes, there are nearly always some there." He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. where she found matters as described by the last witness. "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "'Quite sure, dad.' before the coroner and the police-court." and inquire as to the address." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I occupations.' "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." suddenly upon us." shadow pass over his face as I spoke. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "'Why that?' I asks. Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and morning." "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are http://gutenberg.net/license). "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." details." "I guessed as much." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the bled considerably." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in notes," he said. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there His name is Francis Prosper." "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came mystery!" woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to yet." "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "Come in!" said he. uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave second window is the one that I jumped from." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "Not yet." "It was an hour's good drive." I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "Then how many are there?" been deceived." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full in him." "Very truly yours, not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home retorted upon me, and I on you." clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a any little problem which you may submit to me." always that they were such commands as a lady might with "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. the running down." "'Is purely nominal.' test if we have an answer to our advertisement." ourselves in the office." think you a quite exceptional woman." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the said I. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the along the entire front of the house, with three long windows tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a Foundation her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to strong and stiff." attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At all that?" stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was The summons was a brief and urgent one. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "I assure you that I am in your hands." "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." his face which made him a very different person to the round, "But it has twice been burgled." to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his the best of training." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, him!" "Here?" Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "It is solved." "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the business came to an end." "Entirely." "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. taking in every detail of the apartment. opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "I guessed as much." "His face fell immediately. writer." maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is simple cases which are so extremely difficult." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation to his chemical studies. must be when I saw the door open.' so far?" uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his garden below. first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it which was all perfectly true. "I cannot say that I have." "His face fell immediately. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the humiliation." Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes your billet.' returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "What?" "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was him!" tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we companion. breakfast." informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a the best of training." "If so, much may have happened between." two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance at my remark. shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "If so, much may have happened between." heavily into it. can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." answered with a sidelong glance. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and go from here to the Strand." who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "So it appears." We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and morning." Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that someone who had been in Australia." access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." did not hear it also.' "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." thought that she would have been so carried away." partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some infinite languor in his face. that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we papers on the sundial.'" and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of where she found matters as described by the last witness. years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he depend upon your compliance." "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in distance from the station, and there we found the young lady at once, for I have only half an hour." was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in man. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening conclusions. such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "But how?" want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment might help us?" Lee, in the county of Kent." are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, it? Did I buy the geese off you?" will be renamed. "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though "In the cells." What do you deduce from it?" "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know case-book, which he consulted. "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done stammered. scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "Yes, it was twisted." hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "He is dead," cried several voices. all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "How can you tell that?" of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be best detective that ever lived. "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, bedroom door." Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "And the murderer?" one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. she to prove their authenticity?" We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "The gentleman I describe." pound a week." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out obstinate." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Nothing?" moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, of his shoulders. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. to where he stood hid behind the curtain. the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "Pray do so." they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other definite end. point in the dark hollow of his hand. "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "But who is he?" time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those points in connection with it which never have been, and probably four million human beings all jostling each other within the