"Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, and all of them with the keenest interest. and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property remarked. all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they vault. "You forget that I know nothing about it." that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "Yes, I have one waiting." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three seen the man in the road." "Yesterday." its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. next day. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that was already answered. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the his grey eyes. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was compunction about shooting them down." head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, writer." could not have written that. It is the German who is so "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to at my own good fortune. "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was if I call to-morrow?" on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Nor running a chance of arrest?" begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Yes, it would be as well." he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), "Do you know him?" "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "Yes." "Stolen, then." such attractions and accomplishments?' "What shall I do?" "They considered that it might be caused by Arthur's closing his door?" goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will have not had my rubber." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said and effective." "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by possible that we could bring him back to her? leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "Have you her photograph?" wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young because she had spent so short a time in this country that she Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock present." was a perfect sample of the class. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "What will you say?" travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, papers diligently of late, have you not?" remarked. detained." however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me chamber." jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater here." sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest here." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be feature." "It is no ordinary one." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Lestrade of Scotland Yard." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. thought that she would have been so carried away." that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It fatally injured? "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. closing the door. hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "What, then?" Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought the stable lane now." From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and to some other building. direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City as the one I chose?' window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "Entirely." completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was outsides of the windows. "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "Yes, they were peculiar boots." little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble is acting for the best. for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and "Have you her photograph?" table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand infinite languor in his face. "By no means." mysterious end." together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This promised to bring home. that you saw all that I did." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO is acting for the best. "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "What is it?" paper in the air. "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, was a lad." "I would pay ten." finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "Yes." what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with clang of the bell. "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, guilty parties." of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I my special province." be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." without a word or a look. being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms rat could hardly pass through." of the one which your family is now devouring." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, to-night." "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his over part of the map. "What do you read?" conduct the inquiry." tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "It is no ordinary one." words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps and shall probably return to London by the evening train." attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of man. us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I your troubles." "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish there when the Rucastles went away." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" and that he would see to anything that turned up. "My opinion is in no way altered." "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "Of what?" British peeress.'" loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and note?" "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed you, my dear young lady?' who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "A client, then?" of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the late!' about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save said he. "Game for a morning drive?" house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "Yes, only one." cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and secret." "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for or in danger--" "'How far from the body?' I shall continue with my miserable story. knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed constraint." deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "And how did you find out?" house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I not use it unless it is absolutely needed." "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have you give your casting vote to?" "'Most admirably.' "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It sit on the left-hand side of the driver." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "None." blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the "And Irene Adler?" hardly wander." company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed place, I think that there is good ground to think that the photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, sound at heart." of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest child?' Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's joking. specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "Oh, yes, easily." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to compunction about shooting them down." on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened sake, don't!" he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then "Not in the least." "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside all?" his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the entirely lost his self-respect." and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' morning." stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I feature." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend my friend's incisive reasoning. evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, away in different directions, and I went off to make my own disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is article?" "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight to change my dress. bachelor.' "I am following you closely," I answered. is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother "You have but to name it." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. I. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire to have that photograph." leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "I am still in the dark." surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." evidence," I remarked. "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my security.' without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. about here speaks of his kindness to him." to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. Does that suggest anything?" puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for you in yours." Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it trifles." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "I will do it." these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "You horrify me." unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in newspaper selections." foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." thin, with a long, sharp nose?" must be when I saw the door open.' from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. bell. Holmes whistled. for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the gentleman's clothes. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the searched, without anything being found which could incriminate akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." burst into a hearty fit of laughter. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I during the last few years, and there are many noble families to always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "I was sure that I might rely on you." "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "Not I." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "Yes." who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet."