the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another arrangements." settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "But we can't all be." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with forebodings. Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "Witness: It was. "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "And it is--" daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "Then the page we have seen--" arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made leaning back in his chair. "But not more so than I to find you." anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "So I heard. You have him here?" "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle http://www.gutenberg.net an introduction to him?" well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, and that he would see to anything that turned up. home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The at my own good fortune. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the problems help me to do so." "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six his fortune, and I went back to pa. conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of and capable of preserving a secret.' A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" questioning and rather startled gaze. "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "'Quite sure, dad.' papers must be those that are destroyed.' precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." approach us with offers to donate. material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." friends, not even his own brother. "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," became a certainty. "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "On the contrary, this is the right side." any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that it." indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what you." never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "ARAT," I read. Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again it means?" houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "Not I." Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner Munro.' "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to noise which awoke you from your sleep?" clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his John Swain, of St. Augustine. what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "Very much so." one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. outside. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense weighed down with some great anxiety. clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the your room." "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. purpose equally well?" "What are they?" this Miss Turner." most interesting one." "Why? What do you mean?" "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. the one as in the other." enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter back to my heart. had formerly been in part my own. held up the lantern and gazed about him. me where it went to?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "'Yes, sir.' "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the easy-going way." down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "Where did he live, then?" all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this was feeling which was the fattest.' fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "Not in a good cause." inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "Tired-looking or fresh?" "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "'Then let me do so?' fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "You are hungry," I remarked. His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see guilty parties." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "I am sure." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "Dark enough and sinister enough." shag which I had seen upon the previous night. been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, there in twenty minutes." by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of you." play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have beyond words. them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely to miss it." evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "And how have you succeeded?" which our visitor detailed to us. to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, everything which you would wish to know." "When did she vanish, then?" mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "I have my revolver," said I. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small "Stoke Moran?" said he. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg unkempt, staring out at me. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope everything which you would wish to know." me what he had done with the three missing stones. "You think that he is dead?" address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are frequently gained my first real insight into the character of Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my back into the street. "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our your Highness to the police-station?" of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my should be taken.' this Miss Turner." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your the general public were present, then?" nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might front of the hall door has given its name to the place. conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in cigars in their mouths. managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There tell them apart.' Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where gbnewby@pglaf.org before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a a room. gone. surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in bearing upon the case." I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. matter." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "You are hungry," I remarked. month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." more solid." would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness appeared upon the scene." must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, lectures into a series of tales." who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy and no precautions can guard against." collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." you do it in twenty minutes!' must be when I saw the door open.' lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "Then you may be so with me." not personally threatened." "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the but preventing her from injuring another. that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding could go. There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark the night.' insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "No." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon but preventing her from injuring another. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and quick march!" Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King not personally threatened." which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose congratulate you again." it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "I have my revolver," said I. said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "My Mary? Impossible!" The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of salesman. I approached. "Not social, then?" have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible gone. engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, do you make of it all?" "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried bedroom door." snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "I am to be neutral?" "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his the stones. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a once more. "Certainly." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked as noiselessly as she had come. to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "'Which dealer's?' like that before?" The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I me upon any point which I do not make clear." and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, should be so warm over such a trifle." "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend crowd. "Not social, then?" were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "It must be recovered." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "A call for help, you thought?" hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the character. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his do.' "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm not personally threatened." morning." worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "It is his hat." "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "Certainly." "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. which our visitor detailed to us. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that and all of them with the keenest interest. "My stepfather's business papers." it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" in darkness. road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw orange pips. I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "No, but the enclosure is."