quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call people in all walks of life. "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "I am following you closely," I answered. Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that all?" heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked her also." Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still clang of the bell. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and and your relations to her." several quiet little villages up there." "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my entirely lost his self-respect." I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson noble correspondent could be. the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, deduce something from that?" I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." where she found matters as described by the last witness. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the down. "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the stepfather?" he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk the coroner come to?" come either from the window or the door. My attention was she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the strength." though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "Nearly eleven." "'Ten to two.' summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two redistribution. should be taken.' it." coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "'Not at all. I only doubt--' metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "And leave your case unfinished?" from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a "Frequently." outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one "The vanishing of the lady." "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do minor matters until to-morrow." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "I see no marks." house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door be sorry for having acted so harshly." came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and *** START: FULL LICENSE *** secret." "There are none." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." galvanised. propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I ready to-morrow?' "But I am all in the dark." made his money." glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the had this final quarrel? was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "No. His orders were to stay in the house." grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess front of the hall door has given its name to the place. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "What! a murderous attack?" "And for present expenses?" way: assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten I. fishes. ways including including checks, online payments and credit card pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading footfalls from the street. Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its "How did you trace it, then?" recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "Deserted you?" "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. there is a decided draught." time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then here." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. certainly not very gracious." "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United appointment with me for six o'clock?" town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and "Yes. He waved his hands." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "Yes?" "And who is her maid?" myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my did not hear it also.' card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, problems help me to do so." wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. ago." "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side present." "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of as he folded up the epistle. glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a bill, which interests me deeply." you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in said Mr. Holder. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in triumphant cloud from his cigarette. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round man. from you?" "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, charge against him will break down." who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I we went to search for him, face downward in a little morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "Nothing?" hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone States. never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the open." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard what is your own theory as to what took place?" "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently main points of my analysis." "Two days later this same performance was gone through under the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then have not had my rubber." tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "Stoke Moran?" said he. prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such closely." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other beg that you will break it off." to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had read over the extraordinary announcement. rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there asked. "None." chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, DISSOLVED. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "I never have." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We "Certainly." "I have my revolver," said I. earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles and no precautions can guard against." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the The note was undated, and without either signature or address. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "Yes." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I garden below. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, perplexity from it to my illustrious client. "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "But she could not love him." It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "So I am. Very much so." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to be.' all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some The summons was a brief and urgent one. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a "'I am sure that I do not know.' my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in reach." It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you and the church but not where the lady lived." gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Why, what do you mean?" leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "And did you observe any change in her then?" money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat Henry Baker is a member." "Not in the least." some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "What can you not understand?" body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On as noiselessly as she had come. we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my enter Dr. Roylott's room." cigars in the box." course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "I know where it is." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain young Openshaw's." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' "This photograph!" Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every along the entire front of the house, with three long windows lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." you came in." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss prepare for the new role I have to play." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from nothing of it?" prisoner's face. have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which woman." "Yesterday." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the shaken than I had ever seen him. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "Nor running a chance of arrest?" that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on already been minutely examined." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "'Tell me all about it,' said I. such attractions and accomplishments?' old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss quite distinctive." conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that in. bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. what these perils are?" "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." go back?" nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "Yes." crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and forehead. gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to felt?" been anything against him. He had for years been known as a the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the pressing in one house as in another. day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in interest. They are important, you understand, without being of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "And help." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the heavy and sharp instrument." there is a decided draught." even so self-evident a thing as that." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "Yes, he did." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "But she could not love him." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "'Ten to two.' no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "Nothing?" "Has he come with you to-night?" call for it in person on Monday morning.' on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the his cane at the bell-pull. contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." article?" to his chemical studies. Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." "Holmes, the busybody!" position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "Never to return." "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. "Nothing?" I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the