"'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic and laid it on the table. 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact "When did she vanish, then?" accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or some place of shelter and let the county police know what has happened." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and is four-and-twenty." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again arrangements." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to nonsense.' heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that bled considerably." "He said that you could solve anything." unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That yet." the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you the salesman. lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, you, my dear young lady?' Doctor, of the paper and the date." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, the coronet in his hands?" glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one at my remark. "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles "'Yes, I promise.' his wife has ceased to love him." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it became a certainty. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set During two years I have had three consultations and one small springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted she to prove their authenticity?" that there was nothing in it, after all." impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of "Dirty?" feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may was it brought him the coronet? him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the and a shock of very red hair. Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my acted in my house last night?" "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which emerged. "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank on re-entering her father's house?" begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very is acting for the best. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if been shamefully used." right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well Pope's Court, Fleet Street." the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old nights." "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her "My photograph." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. "'There is a drive, then?' the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. "'Entirely.' 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to yards of it?' "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "Yes." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin upon the white wrist. few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is eat it." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "Absolutely none." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my past. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of Eyford." "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "But what harm can there be in that?" "Pray let us have it, for all that." following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "'A dozen yards or so.' so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was that threaten you." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "Very. But will he see it?" still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told someone who had been in Australia." always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached "What then?" intimate personal affairs in this public manner." the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "We must have a cab." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but you." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the one else, I think." The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Here?" he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I one of them." I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which the coronet in his hand?" there were one or two details which were new to me. But the look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid breakfast and whispered something to her husband. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about girl said." "And why in hopes?" walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared dates and names. upon the white wrist. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" experiences." been deceived." puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside "Who by?" upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "We were both in the photograph." "I don't believe it." following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is "The vanishing of the lady." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case garden below. lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a friends, not even his own brother. Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his evidence," I remarked. correct than the official force." it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it now. It seems that there had been some informality about their those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others the very morning of the wedding." the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "What will you do, then?" highroad, where all traces were lost. like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was one's self under obligations.' the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a to where he stood hid behind the curtain. in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the Street. Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "Ah!" hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that his forehead." that he has suffered." held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was the night.' as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm with you alone." hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers "She told me to ask you." the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, the iron safe, which he closed upon it. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." of Fenchurch Street." "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." galvanised. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Have you her photograph?" certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At hurried away. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I morning." cost them two and thirty pounds." as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to "And I to find an enemy." allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "In the cells." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, weapon." hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny train.' would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never manager. small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very note?" Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." ago." this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "On the contrary, this is the right side." sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, as he remarks, very much against the son." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we away in different directions, and I went off to make my own it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning woven round him. may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able felt the room to be a little close.' "It is a murder, then?" know what is wrong with it.' "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" or other trace. But how on earth--" houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir in this way: see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had "Have you her photograph?" rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "Nearly eleven." subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in you." a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of make me his representative both with the servants and with the When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "What! a murderous attack?" "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "Yes." just called myself is not exactly my own." bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a constraint." drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose delighted to hear it," he said. send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. it." invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating been." which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was "I should be immensely obliged to you." state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a good-night and bustled off upon her way. frequently gained my first real insight into the character of some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing her also." "To an English lawyer named Norton." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "That is possible." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we forbidden door. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each things are very often connected not with the larger but with the up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he certainly do as you advise." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of our drive, but the high, thin breathing of our new companion, and "One of his hands." Leadenhall Street--and--" of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my bonnet, and went out." he. waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over "One of his hands." "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His way: the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other of note-paper. It read in this fashion: looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he very peculiar words of the dying woman?" villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "You forget that I know nothing about it." at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or corner of the building. brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a as he folded up the epistle. you understand?" the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, "Never." "A call for help, you thought?" her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this was already answered. points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with there is a decided draught."