a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the Eyford." from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I "'About the same.' said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this John Swain, of St. Augustine. box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep you came in." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you manager. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile been anything against him. He had for years been known as a expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his to talk it over. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "Dr. Becher's." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I look upon these things in a different way." hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project IS "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "Witness: Nothing definite. than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the this Miss Turner." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his and the colonel ushered me in. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and It was close upon four before the door opened, and a Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent you." "Was he the only applicant?" know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what crime. "What?" children over to America with him, so that I found myself without drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "Well." "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H the bottom.' Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible murdered man." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and breakfast?" "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this in this note: "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of nonsense.' "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, comes from the middle window." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "'Never.' left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "What!" he roared. be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some matter." The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "What then?" relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "Pray tell us what has happened to you." The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of a good hundred miles off by now." "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official arrested. You then--" Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, "Texas, I think." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Ten will be early enough." Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "You did not overhear what they said?" have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America "Yes." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned woman." roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "He disappeared so suddenly." when your master had gone out." "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "He slept on the premises." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the things are very often connected not with the larger but with the upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the get the tickets." the stable lane now." at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage when you have done it." the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "You'll never persuade me to believe that." to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided nights." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. McCarthy's innocence. caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" meant it for the best. appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining upon the sideboard." anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It "But of what society?" the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an and laid it on the table. "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch My friend smiled. public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining jewels which you have stolen?' "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after followed. vague figure huddled up in the darkness. into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are tied." particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us dead, shall be safe with us." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in use an arc-and-compass breastpin." suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in "You saw the ventilator, too?" "Which surely he restored to their owner?" Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, never came back." "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "'Is purely nominal.' "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while you?' brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. than to us. "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since the house with me." "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "'Oh, no.' "And you thought he was pulled back?" but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have you." main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "Then I am your man." stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he questionable one." brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the yourselves in at night?" which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a one of the states of the Union." It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy mystery may be cleared along those lines." she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of ago." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly some place of shelter and let the county police know what has business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was "Was your sister dressed?" he died? statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your little trying to do so much typewriting?" is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction noise which awoke you from your sleep?" woven round him. for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid "I cannot say that I have." that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is that there was nothing in it, after all." dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events you?' to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, back alive. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. hardly wander." companion quietly. look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual the house with me." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at train from Paddington which would bring you there at about hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look locked. "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the and that he would see to anything that turned up. who was a member of your goose club." precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to prepare for the new role I have to play." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "You were travelling in the States?" refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" be sorry for having acted so harshly." heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned desk. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and do.' not personally threatened." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether had died away into the silence from which it rose. all-comprehensive glances. isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the grasp, he hurried from the room. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was or in danger--" wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we was not a bird to be seen there. "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." call you and give you the chance." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in directly by questioning you." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest hopeless attempt at recovering them." approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the Countess of Morcar's?" agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, with the outside air!" My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them "When did it break out?" hardly wander." "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at that you can jump it.' I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "I have my revolver," said I. man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" something of him before." Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left cigars in their mouths. "That is it on the dressing-table." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on point our research must commence, and we will begin it by I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and "Yes." state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of following enigmatical notices: "If I can be of use." office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot tied." astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at which it had come upon my father." "Pray continue your narrative." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I once more for Briony Lodge. "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting "But you would not advise me to refuse?" determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle "At the wedding breakfast." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was discontent upon his features. these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. tied." American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking key of the affair now." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than have one." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried exactly what you advise." - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured village inn over there?" a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between "I have my revolver," said I. "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It "And your father? Did you tell him?" overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I photograph?" Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the "Ha! you find it so?" Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, one of them." locked. save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I "'A dozen yards or so.' spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "Here?" 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and bachelor.' "I assure you that I am in your hands." "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "So it appears." which it had come upon my father." each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, of the one which your family is now devouring." Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, despaired of." wedding?" retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "But we can't all be." light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. name is different." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you but preventing her from injuring another. and no precautions can guard against." where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and galvanised. need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "He disappeared so suddenly." "Where is it, then?" "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low here." Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, vault. the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or brain must have something in it." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor it? Did I buy the geese off you?"