"It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his you." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry not as remarkable as your advertisement." leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with made him keep the appointment." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who did not hear it also.' rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as again." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern heavily into it. began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had maid will bring up your coffee." said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. in this way: to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in murdered man." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "Witness: I must still refuse. are, I think, all that we need." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making room had already been engaged for us. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "But what will you do?" them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into the warnings." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "'About the same.' "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be had picked up in the wood. no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, ill-usage at the hands of fortune. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to detained." evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to his forehead." in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a problems help me to do so." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' article?" silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "Then I do not see the point." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon "But the mystery?" sit on the left-hand side of the driver." to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. knowledge of the world." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which front of the hall door has given its name to the place. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I true." chair. engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets time." "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for Surrey." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what papers diligently of late, have you not?" advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me note?" with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "No, his friend. He wished us to leave him alone. He is round in "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he the inquest, and which are worth considering." detective. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring if I call to-morrow?" and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room of fine shops and stately business premises that they really metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "And leave your case unfinished?" immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs and inquire as to the address." "'Yes, it was gone.' it. gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "I answered that I had not. "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage and your relations to her." words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my been shamefully used." it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "'What then?' I asked. "What is it, then--a fire?" the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That instituted." with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "'Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well. There is a Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before what I may call a really hard day's work." ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. Doctor, of the paper and the date." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring locked." "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's to change my dress. who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, business." International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make she slowly sank and died without having recovered her everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his not, dad?" she asked. "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part at my remark. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "You know me, then?" Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would some terrible trap for her." painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "'It is locked up,' I answered. Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every Have you good authority for what you say?" the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "I have my revolver," said I. half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her Project Gutenberg-tm works. tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "You don't mind breaking the law?" "I don't believe it." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, open." give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my think that he is innocent?" interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social go back?" done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. shall use the carriage to-night." John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over had formerly been in part my own. "Is he quiet?" shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "I see no marks." make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "Indeed! Whose, then?" coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, strong reason behind." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' and it need not interfere very much with one's other "'Yes, I promise.' credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too himself to hunt down. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every was lame." and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own the Friday. Was it to be in church?" eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's to-morrow." "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On during that time.' seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat and all of them with the keenest interest. "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon begin with, and I had not got mine yet." evidence," I remarked. dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you along the entire front of the house, with three long windows use an arc-and-compass breastpin." moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not since then to throw any light upon what became of him." had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual "Ah!" "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were indeed which he could not unravel. quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "To an English lawyer named Norton." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself hopeless attempt at recovering them." it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the details." Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "Not in a good cause." swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you "I would give my fortune to have them back." home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I thin, with a long, sharp nose?" constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for eavesdroppers?' slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of sufficient punishment." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of annoyance, but no jest. incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew bare slabs of marble. key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The mysterious business." stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "'Ten to two.' constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I window when the police appeared." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest a good hundred miles off by now." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "To an English lawyer named Norton." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, whatever might befall. certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, door?" figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those fat-encircled eyes. without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of formed some opinion?" for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting of them has the shutters up.' swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with some place of shelter and let the county police know what has with frightened eyes at his accuser. shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the "And leave your case unfinished?" speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, question. part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "'And what salary do you ask?' was lame." occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "I say it is." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, questioning and rather startled gaze. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! once more for Briony Lodge. "Yes. He waved his hands." It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "None." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "The King of Scandinavia." him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "Was your sister dressed?" suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being that?' "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the you." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they soul! here is her carriage at the door." father's place of business?" companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do any." "Nothing." fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid the matter." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the that you wished to speak to me?' examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." points to suicide?" anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." and it need not interfere very much with one's other charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "Witness: I must still refuse. "Just look it up, then." "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty "The knees of his trousers." "Whose house is it?" gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me God! What an exposure! What can I do?" flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so "But you have hopes?" "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill had picked up in the wood. your co-operation." request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no husband's writing, madam." going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and one else, I think." very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" forbidden door. Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. such attractions and accomplishments?' "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to one or two very singular points about this room. For example, derbies." The events in question occurred in the early days of my the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "'Yes, I promise.' "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which "Do you go out much in society?" envelope. pound a week." fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged