a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "And what did you learn from him?" these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from sake, don't!" son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for the night.' though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past o'clock is it?" the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that despair." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian province." "How on earth--" time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham test if we have an answer to our advertisement." Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not death." Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "When did she vanish, then?" I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could his grey eyes. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "What can you not understand?" was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came I held the little printed slip to the light. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable I nodded again. "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "'You cannot say what it was?' nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a triumphant cloud from his cigarette. back to my heart. "Murdered?" that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my galvanised. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent papers on the sundial.'" huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR and put his glass in his pocket. was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair "'Never,' said I. "There are none." of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is mystery." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was there is a decided draught." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "Nothing?" hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded fait accompli?" chambers. that I am arrested." which are rolled in Rotterdam." the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "From his hat?" bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is grasp, he hurried from the room. He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he "Who by?" just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." the little opening for the ventilator is." he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." grasp, he hurried from the room. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "No legal papers or certificates?" which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar present." "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her security.' loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. sufficient punishment." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "Yes, sir." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the papers diligently of late, have you not?" "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and prison!" a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and gbnewby@pglaf.org About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black any." me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose several quiet little villages up there." comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been instituted." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face and laid it on the table. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have IS prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had redistribution. outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such case before our client came into the room." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "Where did you address your letters, then?" electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some unprecedented a position." Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most chair. Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "I have seen the police." among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I you, my dear young lady?' learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an tied." "You know me, then?" "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. there." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was national property. I was determined that the law should have its the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "If I can be of use." time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, "I see many objections to any such theory." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done used to be." "Yes, certainly." "To ruin me." gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your will not take me long to tell. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the the little opening for the ventilator is." how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed depend upon my doing so.' dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." to Leatherhead. "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "Was there a secret marriage?" immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." Dr. Gregory B. Newby "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it "In answer to an advertisement." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded is four-and-twenty." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be Holmes' room. who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. to-morrow." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had the best of training." said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Pray continue your narrative." the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the and put his glass in his pocket. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but question. "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should of campaign. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature towards the blaze. became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, again before evening." ourselves in the office." "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried time." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the "My photograph." which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and there was no need for father to know." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind was shining brightly. occurred." no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner I took the paper from him and read as follows: had formerly been in part my own. "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not knowledge of the world." 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "She showed me, as I told you she would." basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine But Holmes shook his head gravely. "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which IS I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The laugh and put his lips to my ear. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "How on earth--" matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, second." from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the such person." back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." silent! Oh, he will be silent!' snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having to-night." by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. third from London." this unhappy family?" wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this coroner's jury." will take you up to see the machine.' Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a I leave." "Then he might have called to you?" cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his Holmes rather sternly. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon just ask you whether you had heard it.' thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. which should have the effect of calling the attention of the of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a strong reason behind." wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a said I. forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "I will try. What is it?" would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be away into the river." And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "In San Francisco, a year ago." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a experiences." Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and call for it in person on Monday morning.' "My last client of the sort was a king." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure throat." must compliment you." nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made I nodded again. takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed populous neighbourhood." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "Not in a good cause." beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches in one or two places in England?' "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and said Mr. Holder. tell me that you intended to go into harness." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I maiden herself was most instructive." civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle figure." is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from characteristics, but those are the more obvious." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. charge against him will break down." Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. some place of shelter and let the county police know what has very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his the iron safe, which he closed upon it. my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may "We must sit without light. He would see it through the experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood next day. more solid." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst few hundred pounds.' "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "An enemy?" own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "How did that help you?" believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it "What! You do not mean bodies?" intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell breakfast." order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and shag which I had seen upon the previous night. to affect your life." staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the be best to do. to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been of Mr. Rucastle's." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "No sign of it?" "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come