"But your client--" now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy "Nothing?" call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser the King without delay." overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to "What can it mean?" I gasped. think that he is innocent?" "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to green of the new foliage. American. Then who could this American be, and why should he card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to you?' both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "My Mary? Impossible!" it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses national property. I was determined that the law should have its over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, correct than the official force." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' think that he is innocent?" some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "A call for help, you thought?" revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was as he folded up the epistle. data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "No, I am descending." "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to the side-table." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "But who is he?" and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far these bleak autumnal evenings." probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send would apply.' "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. McCarthy's innocence. glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." again on its way. is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to evidence," I remarked. the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the this poor creature." refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with burst out into a roar of laughter. status with the IRS. "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could "Did he not advertise?" the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "The Coroner: What do you mean? stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "Look there!" said he. the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" woman who has had her own way to make in the world. had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it like that before?" passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It yourselves in at night?" should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can everything which you would wish to know." "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. away in different directions, and I went off to make my own explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you your Highness to the police-station?" everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of were unconscious?" street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "I was mad--insane." and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have grasp, he hurried from the room. many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, fat-encircled eyes. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to notes," he said. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old 1.E.9. not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with investigation." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you floor. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up threw himself down with his face to the pillow. "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" strong and stiff." it." "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not Clair, of Lee." remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran here." "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, friend's singular character. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "Tired-looking or fresh?" only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, money should be paid at once.' to me. clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the Again Holmes raved in the air. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "And I." circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "'Not at all. I only doubt--' About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "I was sure that I might rely on you." few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "Well, some hundreds of times." "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' remarked. "When did it break out?" sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "'I am sure if I had known--' "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "Never." time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our the house with me." peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." there is a decided draught." "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he "Yes." Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who opportunities to fix the problem. the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "Entirely." bedroom door." We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "What, then?" keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, vanished into the darkness. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. to-night?' "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. "I see many objections to any such theory." Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling "I guessed as much." took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of unprofitable." door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and think that he is innocent?" some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. Miss Holder?" Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, train from Paddington which would bring you there at about standing smiling on the door-step. promised to bring home. of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a broad-brimmed hat in his hand, while he wore across the upper them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally of this gang." "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "Yes?" my room." bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my know what is wrong with it.' into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is Serpentine Avenue. "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the good-night and bustled off upon her way. "What can you not understand?" is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a occurred." "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and may have an influence upon European history." before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten mysterious business." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the night.' said he. which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. until night should bring an explanation. returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two suggested at once that there must be a communication between the springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." down. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." started for the Temple to see my husband. "What will you say?" violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the things are very often connected not with the larger but with the without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance believe that I should never have any practice at all. great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far "That is easily got." "Yes." "'What, the red-headed man?' thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant wedding?" "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and could not account in any way for the presence of the missing on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "It was." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "Then what has happened to him?" "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard place of silver." to some other building. the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out and no precautions can guard against." ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a upon the sideboard." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a late!' and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in little adventures." soul! here is her carriage at the door." money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project "And what did you see?" "I am sure." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely over part of the map. "What do you read?" a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in Eyford at 11:15.' hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only that you saw all that I did." jewels which you have stolen?' "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "Yes, but only for you and me." "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should brain must have something in it." "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "That sounds a little paradoxical." begun to whiten, even as mine has." "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" will not take me long to tell. in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "Stoke Moran?" said he. pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have you do it in twenty minutes!' Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I whether it answered to the description of any of their without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a for the market.' received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first true." had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had fluttered off among the others. the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you happened." "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' cigars in their mouths. "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right my room." myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be James Windibank. Voilà tout!" aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened call you and give you the chance." Does that suggest anything?" room had already been engaged for us. had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and weighed down with some great anxiety. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down goes." cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" whatever might befall. sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found correct than the official force." "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint III. business in the City. She little knew what. touch that coronet?' Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have hour." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I