"Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left of." his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and his knees, staring into the fire. "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back writing, and yet I know it well." presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve eat it." hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "No, my brougham is waiting." Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had four million human beings all jostling each other within the III. mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "And how have you succeeded?" perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "He might." He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." him to go away.' paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are "Dirty?" Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest "The Coroner: What do you mean? I approached. "Yes." "Then you may be so with me." for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "Was there a secret marriage?" tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set assist you in forming an opinion." "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great for and were ordered to this address. "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, the running down." "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that have accepted such a situation. "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 the house with me." pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and "A call for help, you thought?" with her." have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "Her father is very rich?" Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read in him." have an American origin." charged with?" "Perhaps we may make them less so." "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, so far?" some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both six. Come in!" instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "No more words. Get out!" "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and acted in my house last night?" "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper galvanised. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon security.' of this gang." "In answer to an advertisement." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon four million human beings all jostling each other within the unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The will be renamed. "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have Young McCarthy must be got off, however." company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "No sign of it?" think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is ill-usage at the hands of fortune. Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many friend's singular character. investigation." and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "You don't mind breaking the law?" "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "None." steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid relief. if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who was already answered. What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "Oh, yes, easily." that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this was already answered. answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "And when will you call?" the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there in a friendly supper." was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from gone. of campaign. your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "I think that it is very probable." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I the room while you explain this matter?" "What do you mean?" him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a indeed happy." before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe "What can it mean?" I gasped. instincts rose up against that laugh. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man opportunities to fix the problem. presume?" tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes mystery." plantation.' wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "Pray be precise as to details," said he. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its written. Farm upon the left." have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of must compliment you." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? some water from a caraffe. "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the criminal. We have already had experience of such." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had his cane at the bell-pull. "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when morning." Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "Yes, they were peculiar boots." a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "'Which dealer's?' feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the memory. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that James Windibank. Voilà tout!" push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully Holmes' room. words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "Did your wife hear all this?" for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "I know where it is." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "'I am sure that I do not know.' seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see this Miss Turner." triumphant cloud from his cigarette. 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you I am not easy in my mind about them." words came to my lips. What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is door?" carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." cause to be." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you until night should bring an explanation. "Why did you beat the pavement?" attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. upon a handsome competence. pictures, libraries, or plate. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk about here speaks of his kindness to him." pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the straightened it out again. Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere approach us with offers to donate. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "I will get her to show me." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it had a long day." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Here?" words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential in my life." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we once more. a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always face and glided from the room. "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. IS which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. conversation I have gathered that they have been married about young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "My opinion is in no way altered." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all corner of the building. pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the "The knees of his trousers." "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable my former friend and companion. quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, lumber-room." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, be sorry for having acted so harshly." struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the better grown goose." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "I would pay ten." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "What, then?" hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming away into the river." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I Count Von Kramm." this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "And what did you learn from him?" without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "But who is he?" of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "What is it, then--a fire?" said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my me. it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a plantation.' of Mr. Rucastle's." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she question. companion. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you and the colonel ushered me in. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court outbreak?" will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, man. I know him from the photograph." beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "And I to find an enemy." Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has late." gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I new duties?' the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "Never." important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from to surprise her." held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" Pope's Court, Fleet Street." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue "Get out!" said he. society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull occupations.' everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' suspect him." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, coat-tails." "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's electronic works photograph?" you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in few hundred pounds.' "If I can be of use." confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "No, my brougham is waiting." creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very 11:15.' "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. "What, then, did Peterson do?" looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress