The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of front of me. of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I recover the gem." original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of clang of the bell. think that he is innocent?" McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "Proceed, then." of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you Countess of Morcar's?" I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased "So it appears." chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, in the port of London." I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features it." hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "I don't believe it." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." not come at once?" forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," "'Yes, it was gone.' fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the persecution?" seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal "Where did you address your letters, then?" "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I must be when I saw the door open.' hereditary King of Bohemia." pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. Lestrade of Scotland Yard." time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her could not have written that. It is the German who is so fatally injured? rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same promised to bring home. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was ashen face. pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there was keenly on my guard against him. every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was detained." confronted him. no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable her also." the Friday. Was it to be in church?" Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a disappearance of these gems?" exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "Can I be of assistance?" became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "And you don't know his address?" "I will try. What is it?" gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" the coroner come to?" body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no client, rising. it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. test if we have an answer to our advertisement." away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but colour had been driven from his face. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. companion quietly. To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official "Yes, sir, that is undoubtedly my hat." leave you to your papers for a little." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." which we had just quitted. them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. "Have you it here?" weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party you found me to-night--and running through the front room she the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of arrested. You then--" smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or begun to whiten, even as mine has." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem off." you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges go back?" certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "Dr. Becher's." the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of chamber." "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the asked with his eyes open. "It is half-past ten now." handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "This photograph!" many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here "'What are you doing there?' he asked. Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private thirty. public press." and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon lids now and glanced across at his visitor. We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it best detective that ever lived. may have an influence upon European history." lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and me where it went to?" hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "Was the window open?" you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "It is very clear." comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience young Openshaw's." Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "One of his hands." "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "'I am sure if I had known--' world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my to go into your room and bar your shutters?" him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in followed. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, point our research must commence, and we will begin it by 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." formed some opinion?" seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "So I heard. You have him here?" in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who notes," he said. lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon mysterious end." finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and "By no means." Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "Where did he live, then?" leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is "No bad?" placed his cuttings. typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the "Yes, sir." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "No." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." time." "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "The decline of his fortunes, then?" he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There at a side door. scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "Very. But will he see it?" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "It is possible." the stable lane now." Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with dates and names. frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "It was an hour's good drive." papers on the sundial.'" an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over "What is it, then--a fire?" the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during strong and stiff." Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "The vanishing of the lady." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then promised to bring home. by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he believe that I should never have any practice at all. "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "It is to him that this trophy belongs." up this clue while it is still hot." naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the sofa. This way, please!" following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in "Look there!" said he. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of bird of prey. learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself fluttered off among the others. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "That is it on the dressing-table." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the detective. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "Proceed, then." in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he notes," he said. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "Then I am your man." "Why did you beat the pavement?" to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for official police." murdered man." him to be an active member of the medical profession." "ARAT," I read. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining knowledge of the world." whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, opened the door, and slipped through. landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got of them has the shutters up.' was lame." my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely the general public were present, then?" woven round him. would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which do.' "How did you trace it, then?" knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. she might be summoned. there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't for the market.' all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your experiences." "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." "Then, how do you know?" "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you 1.F. which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and not use it unless it is absolutely needed." little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "Nothing." the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "The doctor?" business matters.' "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to secret." accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "My photograph." business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, "Do you receive much company?" he asked. had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "Could he throw no light?" call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the she might be summoned. "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" what do you think they found in the pockets?" "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is back into the street. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "It was a confession," I ejaculated. charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land all that?" position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "How often?" "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the you." of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "Certainly." "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to to have been novel and of interest." "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little way in everything. if she died from some sudden fright." companion imperturbably. he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, success. already referred to. her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "Was he the only applicant?" "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure