forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a nice household for a young lady." successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his spare." eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "Pray tell us what has happened to you." in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "Witness: Nothing definite. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "It is no ordinary one." pity, because in other respects you would really have done very in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped imbecility!" he cried. of the way of danger. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. held up the lantern and gazed about him. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "I say that I have solved it." have an American origin." of." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you discontent upon his features. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "'It is locked up,' I answered. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his derbies." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own served to weaken the effect. approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "Ample." the south-west, I see." Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too that you saw all that I did." I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you letters?" "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom British peeress.'" they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "And Irene Adler?" "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "'Then let me do so?' that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, is entirely a question of barometric pressure." "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing country, and eventually married, without anyone having a and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "But how did you gain them?" "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook you in yours." particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside drawing your inferences." I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, coat-tails." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." him to go away.' "What do you mean?" God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "It is no ordinary one." which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the the matter." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "I beg pardon." ways including including checks, online payments and credit card again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally was once confined in the cab my mission was practically and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may flock.' daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as him nearly every evening." stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "What office?" lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side searched, without anything being found which could incriminate backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove to his chemical studies. last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many garden below. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I chair. from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "Pray do so." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is important." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the main points of my analysis." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "I will not look." the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love the nursery. what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone American. Then who could this American be, and why should he there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always 'please.'" half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "He is still with you, I presume?" had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. our word." ourselves in the office." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me "My Mary? Impossible!" lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate I was concerned in it." problems help me to do so." "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch in a friendly supper." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at might have a private word with us. strength." time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was thirty. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight your Highness to the police-station?" status with the IRS. "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his now. It seems that there had been some informality about their wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. "I am armed." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping looking up at the numbers of the houses." they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it one of the states of the Union." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "Pray let us have it, for all that." I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the where Mr. Fordham shows you.' in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. Farm upon the left." was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of From what you have told me I think that it is possible that Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I about here speaks of his kindness to him." breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the the best of training." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that the roots. had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has Pope's Court. "How do you know, then?" prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "Why, it's a dummy," said he. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped enter into my head. had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded papers." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "But how could you guess what the motive was?" always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever one else, I think." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never and I shall be with you presently." professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to I shall continue with my miserable story. "Really! You surprise me." outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "'Ten to two.' Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, the one as in the other." Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "Breckinridge is his name." "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "I say it is." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "Then you may be so with me." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to shall use the carriage to-night." 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his call for protection in the marriage market, for the present "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when nothing of it?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had business came to an end." directors, with the result that you have seen." than was visible to me." waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the a little more before I quite committed myself. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "No good news?" opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little national property. I was determined that the law should have its "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found which was all perfectly true. resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and bell. Holmes whistled. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without that?' revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but tell me that you intended to go into harness." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded singular points about the case. What did the police think of the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and charged with?" together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "Whose house is it?" As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what where she found matters as described by the last witness. of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "My dear Holmes!" push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal woman." him!" corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to about here speaks of his kindness to him." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a jewels which you have stolen?' And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." maiden herself was most instructive." we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was my little problems." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He Cross for the Continent." the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My in this way: there in twenty minutes." "Ah!" have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "Not social, then?" better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "Then I can wait in the next room." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility "It looks newer than the other things?" one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no upon a handsome competence. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then little adventures." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "In the cells." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further which I could not give. He asked for Alice. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." British peeress.'" companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange would apply.' its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, "'Where to?' "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to crime." chair. seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the an introduction to him?" "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "But your client--" main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A meant it for the best. and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. held up the lantern and gazed about him. "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I "No sign of it?" "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now prison!" impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "'What are you doing there?' he asked. we went to search for him, face downward in a little "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill the armchair which I pushed forward for him. being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to three fields round his house, and there he would take his Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of affair. anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "So I heard. You have him here?" business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "Is he quiet?" muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the from you?" "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so or in danger--" and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man.