over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was lost nothing by them." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "'Is 4 pounds a week.' headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "It is his hat." his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "'I have already given you my word.' out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "Very murderous indeed." it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "It's nothing of the kind." "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. "But she will refuse." on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" followed. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "What then?" glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in "But she could not love him." other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove ago." Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I acted in my house last night?" have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where as the one I chose?' test if we have an answer to our advertisement." "I cannot imagine." is worth.' American. Then who could this American be, and why should he knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are question," said Holmes, smiling. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his results." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "And what then?" confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have out." "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "Perfectly so." "'Certainly,' I answered. "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a recall any case within my experience which looked at the first workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the case before our client came into the room." "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself once more for Briony Lodge. "Could he throw no light?" initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. all-comprehensive glances. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while knowledge of the world." passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said people in all walks of life. repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his himself. the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "Yes." approach us with offers to donate. You want to know what became of those geese?" particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I remarked. wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her unkempt, staring out at me. doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "What will you do, then?" "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There again." work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & Project Gutenberg-tm works. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "None." "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." society." "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, go--none." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "Where is it, then?" "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine do you make of it all?" as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into new duties?' shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in enter into my head. first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is to change my dress. "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the acted in my house last night?" "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which to have been novel and of interest." asked. "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "In heaven's name, what for?" ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up careless servant girl?" night.' said he. with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot the nursery. to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "He might." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his floor. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely "How did you deduce the select?" of the vacancies.' that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "What?" civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather gbnewby@pglaf.org time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "Yes?" "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself go from here to the Strand." "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "A client, then?" manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point said he, "my real name is James Ryder." black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some politicians who had been sent down from the North. formed some opinion?" in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the which it had come upon my father." it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in your bag." upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any distance from the station, and there we found the young lady thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "What is it, then--a fire?" smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "Dr. Becher's." "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of tail." hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "You did not overhear what they said?" "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a absolutely follow my advice in every respect." William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of that you saw all that I did." acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project is a common subject for conversation. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "Well." "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and said I. coat-tails." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have had picked up in the wood. ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. maid will bring up your coffee." "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you the night.' a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "Do you know him?" "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out you." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "What can it mean?" I gasped. on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more you for a few hours?" "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you been deceived." - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free arrested. You then--" "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "'Not at all. I only doubt--' my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project whether it answered to the description of any of their night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had "Who by?" conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the weary and pale-looking. the running down." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "Certainly, madam." endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, to go into your room and bar your shutters?" "Pray continue your narrative." Sutherland. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are "Yesterday." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and she to prove their authenticity?" "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. gigantic client. Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "I cannot imagine." to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my minor matters until to-morrow." introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "My stepfather's business papers." with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the their singular warning or token before them when starting upon the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the must compliment you." "And Irene Adler?" last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but peculiar to him. the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your secret." your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I country, and eventually married, without anyone having a even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and despaired of." interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only the loss of it. "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The gentleman's clothes. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned once more on the important position which you have been fortunate of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was outbreak?" thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem new acquaintance to Baker Street. "Who by?" see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went him, that man would not have given me such complete information key turn in the lock." circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying asked. the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "It is possible." other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. down in his armchair and closing his eyes. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have and capable of preserving a secret.' between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was him!" and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "No, thank goodness, she did not." his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the as noiselessly as she had come. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "Then the page we have seen--" Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "They are typewritten," I remarked. "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from affair. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "I cannot say that I have." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments here." "'It is locked up,' I answered. would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and this poor creature." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his constraint." out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this be sorry for having acted so harshly." approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the shall use the carriage to-night." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a constraint." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "Why? What do you mean?" "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by the stable lane now." petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug