end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "But what harm can there be in that?" clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "But she could not love him." screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure 1.F. what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the prepare for the new role I have to play." "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "'A dozen yards or so.' "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if which it had come upon my father." "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "Then I do not see the point." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I in one or two places in England?' as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of I nodded again. "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with threw himself down with his face to the pillow. salesman. he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love I nodded to show that I had heard. very peculiar words of the dying woman?" the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is stammered. her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, house for five minutes.' Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a leave you to your papers for a little." corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "Yes, he did." of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Can I be of assistance?" rooms." even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If hardly wander." material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him introspective fashion. charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you entirely lost his self-respect." passage and a tap at the door. "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that go from here to the Strand." often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. tapping his fingers upon the table. "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it was already answered. leaning back in his chair. "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were begun to whiten, even as mine has." had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "Which are?" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the "Then the page we have seen--" husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "In answer to an advertisement." continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It once more to my work. conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly business came to an end." there." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would matter over." wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search enter Dr. Roylott's room." strode off upon his way. lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in "Then the page we have seen--" any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "By all means." said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "I guessed as much." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "No bad?" hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the ways including including checks, online payments and credit card about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that public press." the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion himself to hunt down. "Entirely." "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. business." security.' others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, business at Coburg Square is serious." and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "Pray tell us what has happened to you." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just him to be an active member of the medical profession." presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' minor matters until to-morrow." not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, affection." and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are of his shoulders. have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "Yes." months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is that marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I are, I think, all that we need." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "And you can do nothing until then?" and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any I am not easy in my mind about them." some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's outside. "Absolutely none." transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he became a certainty. of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle will take you up to see the machine.' "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "What then?" laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Then, as to money?" and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the colonel looking down at me. there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three highly," said Holmes. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the appeared upon the scene." Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "And Miss Sutherland?" door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again and it need not interfere very much with one's other foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "And that is--" "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of prove to be little relation between the different incidents of a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "Pray be precise as to details," said he. did not hear it also.' greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "Yes, he did." present." he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious fatally injured? avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to call for protection in the marriage market, for the present was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "What office?" signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "I cannot tell." see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in where she found matters as described by the last witness. tell them apart.' lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "And how have you succeeded?" he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the young Openshaw's." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "Who by?" business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and appeal." there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "Tired-looking or fresh?" pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it there." shoulder; "he's all right." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that the warnings." "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he again." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a his knees, staring into the fire. sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "This photograph!" "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New the stones. him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since "BALLARAT." the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or you." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which help us in this matter." where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' "Yes, I have one waiting." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands Sherlock Holmes, with his finger-tips together and his eyes to were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to province." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. such person." had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "Quite so." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "Then, as to money?" Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "Nothing." "And why?" and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "Why, what do you mean?" brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a you do it in twenty minutes!' means taking possession of that which another person has a prior end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave purpose equally well?" Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they like gravel from a pit.' towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, your own bird, so if you wish--" "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "I say that I have solved it." "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding point our research must commence, and we will begin it by child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, the Friday. Was it to be in church?" iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but and a shock of very red hair. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There cause to be." ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your companion. my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin "And why?" that he will be back before evening." October 9, 1890. circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in "I cannot say that I have." side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately the window, rose as we entered. however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who "Do you know him?" know all about it," he snarled. it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of a good hundred miles off by now." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat You can understand that this register and diary may implicate step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They works. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, depend upon my doing so.' "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big sneer upon his pale face. be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were and put his glass in his pocket. from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say