"So I have heard." "And how did you find out?" over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. "Ah, but I was recommended to you." read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought the inner apartment." pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to drove away. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid in a friendly supper." "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your pressing in one house as in another. absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of frequently gained my first real insight into the character of standing smiling on the door-step. convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than writers could invent nothing more crude." On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do emerged. "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in works. by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "What?" horse could go." my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting washing it down with a long draught of water. "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "'As governess?' all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "And help." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined words came to my lips. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "Stoke Moran?" said he. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of hand, madam?" The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from and it need not interfere very much with one's other "How did that help you?" prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his confronted him. "This concluded the examination of the witness." quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, eat it." "The doctor?" find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of advice." as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! yards of it?' "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never instituted." quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the your own bird, so if you wish--" glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Then I am your man." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, The King stared at him in amazement. cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that in a very precise fashion." "I cannot say that I have." comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." which was all perfectly true. "To the police?" dramatic, in fact." of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been or other trace. But how on earth--" child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the money should be paid at once.' Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "Yes, from Horsham." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." of the one which your family is now devouring." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "I see many objections to any such theory." copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project views." absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him bed dies. Does not that strike you?" human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have "Well, but China?" which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a writer." "Certainly." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind in this note: "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "But how did you gain them?" the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "Well?" "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who have been better. It is all right." back into the street. all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "I would pay ten." season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "No, distinctly professional." feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I with her." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "I am to be neutral?" reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if depend upon my doing so.' The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." you in your example." annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the to a more successful conclusion." "What have you to say now?" "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened "'Entirely.' manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. "What, then, did Peterson do?" King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was not come at once?" some place of shelter and let the county police know what has up this clue while it is still hot." do.' "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I outside." call you and give you the chance." far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in as the one I chose?' discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Then you may entirely rely on me." "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that without a word or a look. "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet entirely lost his self-respect." such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her works. See paragraph 1.E below. deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would McCarthy's innocence. closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable "How did you trace it, then?" "My Mary? Impossible!" together. brandy and water within his reach. like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "None." sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." sake, don't!" this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster his grey eyes. retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "No." could go. not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the that threaten you." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something excitement. "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a morning." again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. someone who had been in Australia." number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this infinite languor in his face. also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business absolutely follow my advice in every respect." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave there." "You have carte blanche." of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a woman who has had her own way to make in the world. went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "You will not go there first?" poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "And how did he make his money?" papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the you understand?" purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary the one as in the other." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This business came to an end." the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, hour." closely." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "It's nothing of the kind." understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "Frequently." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution It may be so in this case, also." beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "'Yes, sir.' over part of the map. "What do you read?" burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while "Was your sister dressed?" "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who business." since then to throw any light upon what became of him." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag showing my impatience. anything to a woman, for she would have her way." likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "Come in!" said he. English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a completely overtopped every other consideration that we both time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. what do you think they found in the pockets?" parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. know that the truth is known." outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in waste of energy." We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, as "But what harm can there be in that?" so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in not fit the lock." heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "How did you trace it, then?" the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what so.' week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted to some other building. respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "I don't believe it." description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her again on its way. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if standing smiling on the door-step. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little that he has suffered." "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "He is dead," cried several voices. must be when I saw the door open.' "Well?" "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "No." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his and all of them with the keenest interest. never will be, entirely cleared up. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On there has been an enclosure here!" bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The could not have written that. It is the German who is so livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a "BALLARAT." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his highly," said Holmes. James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and little trying to do so much typewriting?" not fit the lock." ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that "My photograph." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the said I. than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one the window, rose as we entered. such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." late." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "But he might be a bachelor." off." is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a bearing upon the case." "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, points in connection with it which never have been, and probably devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. "I see many objections to any such theory." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against front of the hall door has given its name to the place. was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is way in everything. into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "The decline of his fortunes, then?" fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because purpose equally well?" first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is lamp in his hand. appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the which are rolled in Rotterdam." listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and,