in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "And what did you learn from him?" hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "It is his hat." London for the present?" mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a hereditary King of Bohemia." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you to his chemical studies. beg that you will break it off." the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. answered with a sidelong glance. "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. straightened it out again. some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, infinite languor in his face. "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the you in yours." elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "No more words. Get out!" present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I lips." is the Dundas separation case, and, as it happens, I was engaged anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. good for you to do.' clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in Holmes' room. of a light. until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly into the room. the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no that the gas is not laid on in his house?" at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name "I am following you closely," I answered. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of to arrive at through this?" "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." of receipt of the work. huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, congratulate you again." in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Not in a good cause." the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "Then, as to money?" arrangements." found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "Precisely." grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, the tragedy. copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have joking. and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and memory. door?" over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "At what time?" thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "Never." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had chill to my heart. fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days the house with me." We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white more solid." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the Doctor, of the paper and the date." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "You have the photograph?" "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all washing it down with a long draught of water. train from Paddington which would bring you there at about "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, them present such singular features as the strange train of shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to you want, then?' meant." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried conversation I have gathered that they have been married about "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" could go. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, unprecedented a position." the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "It was." trying to your nerves." Cross for the Continent." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life him to be an active member of the medical profession." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I But Holmes shook his head gravely. instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but sit on the left-hand side of the driver." closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "And how in the world did you find them?" come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right woman who has had her own way to make in the world. heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "And who is her maid?" wall." as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "What then?" "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in 1.F. father's young wife. crowd. man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the question," said Holmes, smiling. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "And now?" I asked. "'Which dealer's?' "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for redistribution. the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change to affect your life." exactly what you advise." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." again on its way. "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. than to us. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" along the entire front of the house, with three long windows began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." despair." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, to-night's adventure." "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent his knees, staring into the fire. seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "Then I do not see the point." shaken than I had ever seen him. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason there!' "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, from the brougham. a few minutes he said that it would be all right. agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. himself to hunt down. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always was a loud and authoritative tap. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always shadow pass over his face as I spoke. very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this could go. against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what I have it here in my museum." building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole chill to my heart. difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were been deceived." "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked Again Holmes raved in the air. seen the man in the road." I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, Edgeware Road. "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It of the efforts of the United States government and of the better other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and gigantic client. instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will "BALLARAT." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could little trying to do so much typewriting?" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "A confidential servant?" shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying extraordinary contortions. "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the lost his Christmas dinner." instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told persecution?" She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and death." with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence present strange and interesting features that it is no easy turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out "No?" "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and hard-headed British jury." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "No?" "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "Yes, it would be as well." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to silent! Oh, he will be silent!' and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" see me here to avoid scandal." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but you came in." which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable away in different directions, and I went off to make my own "I do." carriage. It was a chestnut." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but might have a private word with us. wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon approach us with offers to donate. the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his yourselves in at night?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower crime. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw off." through." until night should bring an explanation. "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. late." "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents "Just look it up, then." half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to away to you." doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "And why in hopes?" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If murdered man." "That is possible." to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. may have an influence upon European history." to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too forecastle of an emigrant ship. once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a "I am about to be married." Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "'Yes, I promise.' river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that you, my dear young lady?' of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's "Murdered?" with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "It may not come to that," said Holmes. refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an "Nor running a chance of arrest?" doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa will be renamed. The events in question occurred in the early days of my Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the skylight. think that any burglar could have done. office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast was feeling which was the fattest.' turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it keep the flames under. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable entirely lost his self-respect." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for "Oh, the cause is excellent!" had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. think that he is innocent?" his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of he died? mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge your troubles." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the himself in a perplexing position. outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged "Indeed! Whose, then?" returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "That is possible." the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he over with notes and figures. said he. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in even of instruction." the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did whole matter to your consideration." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End "And when will you call?" never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a his face. him nearly every evening." sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It said he, "my real name is James Ryder." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet sneer upon his pale face. think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. spare." fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right could go. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor "Did your wife hear all this?" am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich enough to aid us in our search." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. out of this horrible affair." "That is also quite modern," said the lady.