"Yes, at the mines." card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it "'Where to?' my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "Stoke Moran?" said he. and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. knowledge of the world." drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much in the dead of the night?' As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "The doctor?" back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "None." but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "It certainly sounds feasible." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "You think so, too?" "Certainly." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward shadow pass over his face as I spoke. of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he spare." "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "It must be recovered." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, heavily into it. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet annoyance, but no jest. here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "But his left-handedness." Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "Yes." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too gentleman's clothes. the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and lumber-room." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have charged with?" "Which surely he restored to their owner?" really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but will take you up to see the machine.' in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved made him keep the appointment." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "Not in a good cause." he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "They are typewritten," I remarked. heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of discontent upon his features. innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the train.' test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came not personally threatened." one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was despaired of." were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is very peculiar words of the dying woman?" after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local where we are going." over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is Sholtos." address. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "That you are never beaten." fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to prove to be little relation between the different incidents of himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send late." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he Sutherland. separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "The gentleman I describe." be there in time for your coming." "'You cannot say what it was?' within hail.' the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has hour." experiences." Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very lectures into a series of tales." that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all him." "'Certainly,' I answered. had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a distinguish the words: face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, extraordinary contortions. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "'As governess?' "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in in the hope of finding them." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a that there was nothing in it, after all." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, chance at all." the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, extraordinary contortions. footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" married her." you." so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out the bed, and you in that chair." Countess of Morcar's?" "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "'What then?' I asked. was it brought him the coronet? said I. miles off. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I father's young wife. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I to tell." "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured bearing upon the case." wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." deduce something from that?" is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower down in his armchair and closing his eyes. his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. to you." "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. important." moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "I guessed as much." gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. a few minutes he said that it would be all right. shaken than I had ever seen him. was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the despaired of." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "The rest you will leave in our hands." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped been deceived." main points of my analysis." this man was intellectual?" was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." come either from the window or the door. My attention was erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of observed. "Did your wife hear all this?" the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in used to be." to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn strength." article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry have been better. It is all right." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." have accepted such a situation. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as footfalls from the street. himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black him to be an active member of the medical profession." "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, the night.' paper in the air. outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see absolutely follow my advice in every respect." his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "Of what day?" He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "May I see it?" "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and fat-encircled eyes. the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel feature." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the this man was intellectual?" back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm woven round him. central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. Lestrade of Scotland Yard." shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" third from London." depend upon my doing so.' certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "But she will refuse." "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the begin with, and I had not got mine yet." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found "Where did he live, then?" From what you have told me I think that it is possible that occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much tapping his fingers upon the table. America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I footfalls from the street. it. "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "I shall most certainly do so." reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long companion quietly. habit of advancing money.' Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive should be taken.' though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk brought there to personate someone, and the real person is remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "But I am all in the dark." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether cigar and let me expound." everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of emerged. burst out into a roar of laughter. envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend that you wished to speak to me?' typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than to talk it over. cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are strength in the others." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is it were putty." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some Edgeware Road. assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." I think that I could be of assistance to you." "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "I should be immensely obliged to you." mysterious end." calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk experiences." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, building to Dr. Roylott's chamber?" weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first and prosperity to your house. Good-night." never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "Witness: Nothing definite. about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is never will be, entirely cleared up. and effective." "Why serious?" their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." your bag." prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, noble correspondent could be. refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they see me here to avoid scandal." address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite was lame." there has been an enclosure here!" which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth room had already been engaged for us. important." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "Precisely." of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote in one or two places in England?' once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me showing my impatience. "Won't it ring?" "But your client--" Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the speckled band?" "I say that I have solved it." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the key of the affair now." "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." this unhappy family?" once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "You are certainly joking, Holmes." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" our word." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached was the fact that his father should, according to his account, room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our knowledge of the world." the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him the matter?" "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here cause to be." before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "What then?" clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. 11:15.' could go. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were cause to be." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, closing the door. "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." think that he is innocent?" really the only notable feature about the thing." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the sound at heart." "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "'What would be the hours?' I asked. home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after murdered man." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was