into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I very peculiar words of the dying woman?" little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "'And what salary do you ask?' "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" pity, because in other respects you would really have done very lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." his eyes and forehead. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your know what is wrong with it.' friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "But you were on a friendly footing?" with you alone." "How did that help you?" returned to France?" James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the appeal." Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some ran thus: the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" Sutherland?" deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to "I am in hopes that she does." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "'Certainly not.' "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my some terrible trap for her." has little to do with my story." again." the bottom.' which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "'Certainly not. But why?' swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as that you saw all that I did." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than may never be exposed to such a temptation." for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "'In my own bureau.' Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "Not social, then?" dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of "What will you say?" strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few that threaten you." has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project himself in a perplexing position. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." the warnings." upon the white wrist. the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." entirely lost his self-respect." remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "I will, Miss Turner." this as likely?" "We must sit without light. He would see it through the the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have think that any burglar could have done. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "Ten will be early enough." coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that be sorry for having acted so harshly." you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "I am sure." and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some enough to aid us in our search." moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." place of silver." We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "This photograph!" strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special page at http://pglaf.org circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe your equipment. "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter not interfere, come what may. You understand?" scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "Was he the only applicant?" Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with before the coroner and the police-court." Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "Certainly, madam." "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as nights." "10th. John Swain cleared. way in everything. it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the visitors." Lee, in the county of Kent." since then to throw any light upon what became of him." doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. of them has the shutters up.' "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in lips." She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, of the way of danger. your equipment. soul! here is her carriage at the door." what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing http://gutenberg.net/license). propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body ourselves in the office." police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the that before taking the final step I should like to submit the had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front disappearance of these gems?" bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some are, I think, all that we need." relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than spare." direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon the coronet in his hands?" vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no But Holmes shook his head gravely. back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of to have been novel and of interest." noble correspondent could be. about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are as the one I chose?' "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he "No, but the enclosure is." if she died from some sudden fright." gone. "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all particular state visit http://pglaf.org stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to Pope's Court, Fleet Street." black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, companion imperturbably. will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few have an American origin." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing DISSOLVED. sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that straighten it?" arrested. You then--" "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly letters?" papers." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "You were travelling in the States?" that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his hardly wander." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive "Why serious?" house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "Yes, he did." been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "'Where to?' "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." at my remark. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. presented more singular features than that which was associated It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "No bad?" essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "Which are?" "Then I am your man." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action hard-headed British jury." house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her hard-headed British jury." the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "I am sure." Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott himself to hunt down. This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the is four-and-twenty." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have horse could go." analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly situation." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses "'Then let me do so?' Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. The summons was a brief and urgent one. going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the people in all walks of life. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." that the gas is not laid on in his house?" which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Stoke Moran?" said he. top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master "Married! When?" where we are going." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "I saw her in conversation with her maid." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a happened." the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly have got?" from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest will find little credit to be gained out of this case." the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout most important business. It is probable that he will be away all his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon "Yes?" scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, man. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send have been better. It is all right." "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "'Which dealer's?' which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "You are certainly joking, Holmes." I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was "Yes." snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" galvanised. is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "She walked into the breakfast-room." continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "I cannot as yet see any connection." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I gigantic client. pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by I leave." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without from the brougham. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "A call for help, you thought?" cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "Yes." the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an are, I think, all that we need." with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then London for the present?" "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "What can you not understand?" easy-going way." sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "By train from Waterloo." "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. villagers almost as much as their master. "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "'I am sure that I do not know.' "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "'Yes, I promise.' houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He sufficient punishment." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his and effective." than was visible to me." "Your French gold?" hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "I think that I had better go, Holmes." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Yes." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst not fit the lock." works. See paragraph 1.E below. office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." lost nothing by them."