ourselves in the office." upon the shelf for the interim." Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was "Witness: It was. He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "But what is it you wish?" case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. already been minutely examined." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his papers." of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little have had none more fantastic than this." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the relation between them, and what the object of his repeated I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "Absolutely none." whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "Then I can wait in the next room." a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the over part of the map. "What do you read?" manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire it." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are ready to-morrow?' feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding lumber-room." "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Won't it ring?" "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which Holmes." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all to have been novel and of interest." their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him "I promise," said Holmes. chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are villagers almost as much as their master. cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would "An enemy?" lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken recover the gem." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "It's nothing of the kind." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. question you as to those details which seem to me to be most the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have records." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "An accident, I presume?" blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and the child." "Then the page we have seen--" gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and strode off upon his way. II. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City present strange and interesting features that it is no easy pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all face and glided from the room. gives a meaning to it." address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "What! Had he lost his wife?" news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." vanished into the darkness. know that the truth is known." "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few returned to France?" "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of "It is very clear." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just him and tried to hold him back. pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "No, I am descending." congenial hunt. covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Why? What do you mean?" "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this your room." takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your upon an income of about 60 pounds." "Then you may be so with me." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "Oh, fresh and glossy." "A greater distance to travel." "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project hands. with frightened eyes at his accuser. present strange and interesting features that it is no easy companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "'And what salary do you ask?' this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, his knees, staring into the fire. cost them two and thirty pounds." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." to-morrow." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me was a lad." "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the walking." asked. would apply.' "I was mad--insane." strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." stammered. companion. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of weighed down with some great anxiety. devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under "I do." Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper and the colonel ushered me in. if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been the armchair which I pushed forward for him. case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with to surprise her." pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room entirely devoid of interest." contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "'A dozen yards or so.' look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up closing the door. Eyford." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "That is it on the dressing-table." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either constraint." "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he his face. Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a always that they were such commands as a lady might with strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of beyond words. down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but appointment with me for six o'clock?" "'What then?' I asked. other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at it? Did I buy the geese off you?" the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "Precisely so. I ought to know its size and shape, seeing that I however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "Yesterday." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "You forget that I know nothing about it." across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up your bag." well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "At what time?" wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be views." once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and my former friend and companion. whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank minor matters until to-morrow." it. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client very peculiar words of the dying woman?" at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than look upon these things in a different way." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the few hundred pounds.' the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, the child." only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been "I should be immensely obliged to you." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. article?" can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the records." there!' you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "You are certainly joking, Holmes." throat." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. me, and I could not think that his explanation of the that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the said he, "my real name is James Ryder." and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety written. "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, lumber-room." "Your sister is dead, then?" "An accident, I presume?" "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "I cannot tell." fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty emerged. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "I don't believe it." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it served to weaken the effect. continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a II. like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, "No. What a strange idea!" "What will you say?" Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my himself to hunt down. by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which amused." "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the "Is he quiet?" Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. go--none." you give your casting vote to?" "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' suggested at once that there must be a communication between the cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united "Of what?" the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by address. "And for present expenses?" "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. Project Gutenberg-tm works. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be questioning and rather startled gaze. "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the have had none more fantastic than this." galvanised. "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the the Assizes." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door I am not easy in my mind about them." building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon children over to America with him, so that I found myself without "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "Kindly look her up in my index, Doctor," murmured Holmes without works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain Holmes. have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She him and tried to hold him back. of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, I shall continue with my miserable story. but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "No, I had a dozen." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "Not in the least." she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You you in your example." your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of Holmes' thin, eager face. engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows went to the Alpha were town bred." which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a the warnings." "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able me where it went to?" English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "But I have heard all that you have heard." The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in "The Coroner: What do you mean? inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "It is true that I have been generally successful." "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing than to us. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. heavy and sharp instrument." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "Has he come with you to-night?" "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you "What have you done?" asked Holmes. "My dear Holmes!" "I would give my fortune to have them back." his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have impression behind it as though a window had gently closed Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from