because she had spent so short a time in this country that she point our research must commence, and we will begin it by pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon "They are typewritten," I remarked. But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, train from Paddington which would bring you there at about came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. which are rolled in Rotterdam." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time bill, which interests me deeply." in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for disappearance of the bride.'" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "My dear Holmes!" complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought have one." impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." do." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should works. "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle it." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "Witness: Nothing definite. to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "And I to find an enemy." fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who "Really! You surprise me." by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they tension within him. continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am guilty parties." his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of enter into my head. armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of "Nor running a chance of arrest?" place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon not use it unless it is absolutely needed." way: yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "None." "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had new duties?' weapon." hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you envelope. of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "That's no good." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "Very much so." "It is a murder, then?" total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is depend upon your compliance." "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless served to weaken the effect. and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "No." short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural province." and it need not interfere very much with one's other "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is desk. "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. himself in a perplexing position. Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal shag which I had seen upon the previous night. thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage vanished into the darkness. long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "Yes." down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see became a certainty. "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." it." introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Yes." very morning of my second wedding." lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed to a more successful conclusion." "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the "Then how many are there?" keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in crowd. clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate "Upon what point?" prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "'Yes, sir.' seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my vault. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "Yes, that is the Crown." forehead. always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined strong reason behind." found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "Yes, that is the Crown." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "My last client of the sort was a king." I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, bachelor.' not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "None." should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink "I cannot imagine." flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance was it brought him the coronet? the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue started for the Temple to see my husband. little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for test if we have an answer to our advertisement." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "A confidential servant?" "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "Why serious?" "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do him!" simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each to talk it over. "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have me have 200 pounds?' "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "So I am. Very much so." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "But how?" and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always occupations.' "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 said he. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "Where did you address your letters, then?" examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was into her hand at the door and which lured her within their constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could and that he would see to anything that turned up. repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United it. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a and it need not interfere very much with one's other at a side door. black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which maid will bring up your coffee." course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from place of silver." which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "Texas, I think." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted Foundation broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present bird I ate is country bred." address. "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." "Certainly." earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "Yes." and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "Frequently." rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father already been minutely examined." James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to chill to my heart. maid will bring up your coffee." always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather geese which you supplied to the Alpha." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "No good news?" To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "On your arm?" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. "No, thank goodness, she did not." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You persecution?" dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its forehead. five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "What! You do not mean bodies?" "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me it." moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly has little to do with my story." "He might." "By train from Waterloo." ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the over part of the map. "What do you read?" street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. been lifted and conveyed somewhere." process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that call you and give you the chance." again before evening." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my "I am all attention, madam." father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some disappearance of these gems?" The summons was a brief and urgent one. "But your client--" walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten papers." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "Then what has happened to him?" sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I "And how did he make his money?" "So I heard. You have him here?" well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he friend's singular character. "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a then?" toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home of campaign. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was McCarthy." she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself it were putty." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "A call for help, you thought?" clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he this Miss Turner." gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair even so self-evident a thing as that." smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "What do you mean?" Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. "His face fell immediately. is worth.' broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. "Oh, yes, easily." fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me that you saw all that I did." have got?" really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce third from London." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back miles off. time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another closing the door. joking. delirious. the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "To ruin me." 'please.'" been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing interested in these little problems, and since you are good "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the train from Paddington which would bring you there at about headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you License. You must require such a user to return or me where it went to?" Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary carried out of court." "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" as he folded up the epistle. "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the be.' the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found cigar and let me expound." "'As governess?' people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "In San Francisco, a year ago." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "Of what day?" and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I people don't know." "It is very clear." wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." Holmes had brought up a long thin cane, and this he placed upon read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "9th. McCauley cleared. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "No." which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "What! a murderous attack?" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate the tragedy. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my