manager. happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the he. such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat "But she will refuse." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "Proceed, then." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced at home. to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. burst out into a roar of laughter. "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "It was a confession," I ejaculated. concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the Pope's Court. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took to a more successful conclusion." address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform John Swain, of St. Augustine. "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "And how in the world did you find them?" confronted him. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles lamp. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has rose-bushes. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There power." member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming crackling voice. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to people don't know." for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business ways including including checks, online payments and credit card he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "The murder was done with it." conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough over here." closing the door. ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he papers must be those that are destroyed.' made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this searched, without anything being found which could incriminate happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "None." relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "No. What a strange idea!" suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than him and tried to hold him back. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' Street. of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a London for the present?" "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not "You have but to name it." "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that the ceiling. he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "Not particularly." into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband and I shall be with you presently." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped sit on the left-hand side of the driver." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I green of the new foliage. reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the "Yes, that is the Crown." the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah there were one or two details which were new to me. But the his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the upon a handsome competence. "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at nonsense.' was used.' of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Sutherland. I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall enter into my head. nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what said he. "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the whereabouts. The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his "Witness: It was. very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after any." It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his British peeress.'" them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "It is very clear." following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will Heh?' despaired of." "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, back into the street. black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep kind enough to tell me what I should do." "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." cigar and let me expound." quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried she to prove their authenticity?" return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "Where did you address your letters, then?" glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of detective. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at where we are going." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the "Nor running a chance of arrest?" "I see many objections to any such theory." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the over here." "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp there." The telegram which we eventually received came late one night business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said the coronet at all injured?" Holmes. "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we he. unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." a good hundred miles off by now." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy developed." both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted of the one which your family is now devouring." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, seen the man in the road." "Precisely." of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through answer." have an American origin." pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen Have you good authority for what you say?" the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "And on what day did he meet his death?" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "You have but to name it." distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out his fortune, and I went back to pa. Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, outside. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the house for five minutes.' evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the Holmes. in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of situation." clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "In what way?" asked Holmes. skylight. "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the "Nothing?" rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence shoulder. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but once more to my work. in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a it? Did I buy the geese off you?" with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." posted to-day." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, when your wife allows you to go out in such a state, I shall fear my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. and looked back. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered hardly wander." guilty parties." the best of training." enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "I never have." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Come in!" said Holmes. people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained morning." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not through." help us in this matter." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic already been minutely examined." two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not introspective fashion. accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, arrangements." this remarkable episode. have established a very serious case against the son of the papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for the Friday. Was it to be in church?" We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know carried out of court." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" do.' been shamefully used." "He might." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "But not more so than I to find you." "We were both in the photograph." friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the problems help me to do so." arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all during which he might have communicated with his friend the suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." beg that you will break it off." of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found where we are going." "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with your troubles." "Pray continue your narrative." brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug fashion which was peculiar to him. It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "No legal papers or certificates?" access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided best detective that ever lived. "'Where could I find him?' to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the in the hope of finding them." most interesting one." beg that you will break it off." unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "When did she vanish, then?" of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "I assure you that I am in your hands." the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a that there was nothing in it, after all." natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my been anything against him. He had for years been known as a frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry the bed, and you in that chair." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" His smile broadened. his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." my former friend and companion. crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, my secret was safe in his possession. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I away to you." not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may interested in these little problems, and since you are good very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a "I cannot imagine." "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "To the police?" reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of John Swain, of St. Augustine. "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the do.' His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the