be there in time for your coming." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must considering the formidable letters which were received by himself sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little "I will, Miss Turner." completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "'In my own bureau.' made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I stammered. trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my "Then you may entirely rely on me." black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "I should be immensely obliged to you." returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my wedding?" a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship over part of the map. "What do you read?" examination of the premises, but without finding anything which finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily him to be an active member of the medical profession." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any is so. I know all about McCarthy." dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it or in danger--" occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice "That is easily got." force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for as this. Pray let me have the details." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "'Which dealer's?' ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. like that before?" business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its to affect your life." put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her "He is still with you, I presume?" "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon individual and becomes the badge of a society." established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, throat." America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "I see no marks." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a not fit the lock." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "My opinion is in no way altered." Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to here." "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I dear old homesteads?" something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of despair." there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "Quite so." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for the matter." another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "None. Neville wrote those words." several quiet little villages up there." Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is he died? round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "It is to him that this trophy belongs." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and were new raised from a basin. that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, it with his own hands." James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his hands. was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal lips." "My dear Holmes!" wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The crackling voice. business came to an end." "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very if I call to-morrow?" "Frequently." "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. 'Lone Star' was there in January, '85, my suspicion became a "And help." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never have I gained?" fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us ways of our fellow-men." "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked into the room. again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's galvanised. shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance you in your example." down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off "How did you trace it, then?" alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "Yes, they were peculiar boots." with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an Holmes' thin, eager face. threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the asked. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is your co-operation." "No, but the enclosure is." We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." future lives." pity, because in other respects you would really have done very was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "'Where to?' "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him of note-paper. It read in this fashion: rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "Then I shall certainly come." wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "Stolen." leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to both be extremely obliged.' "I cannot tell." "And the cigar-holder?" "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the direction." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the eavesdroppers?' outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. the station." "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "It goes to the housekeeper's room." unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way telegram would bring me down to your help." swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his his cane at the bell-pull. one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "Seven!" I answered. "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "I have seen the police." flock.' three of the beryls in it, was missing. "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to you?' made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love you." Eyford." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their and it need not interfere very much with one's other should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." him and tried to hold him back. that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to as he folded up the epistle. have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as your only hope of safety." "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "It is solved." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "He is dead," cried several voices. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see galvanised. Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from "I have a cab outside." and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "And how in the world did you find them?" made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady least a most suspicious remark." course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do "Very. But will he see it?" is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. province." introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in galvanised. papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the until night should bring an explanation. who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that tassel actually lying upon the pillow. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a definite end. A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got it? Did I buy the geese off you?" "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. as the one I chose?' upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "No." conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is seven miles from Eyford Station.' few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so one or two very singular points about this room. For example, do.' explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away of Mr. Rucastle's." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" The events in question occurred in the early days of my "I promise," said Holmes. "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "Game for a morning drive?" the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never to-morrow." He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was he bowed and left the room without another word. "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "How did you deduce the select?" parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "I am following you closely," I answered. state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "'I am sure if I had known--' of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you his tall, spare figure pass twice in a dark silhouette against work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "And now?" I asked. was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "But who is he?" "The Coroner: What do you mean? the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew man. unclasping of his long thin hands. "And when will you call?" this as likely?" "You don't mind breaking the law?" it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over II. Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring residence of the great financier. "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "'You doubt its value?' he asked. The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story delirious. staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, the inner apartment." "It missed him, then?" "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to woman." "And it is--" "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from The events in question occurred in the early days of my "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of and the whole place is in a blaze." Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. upon an income of about 60 pounds." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "'Never,' said I. but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the "I guessed as much." We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon."