fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "But his left-handedness." the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of advice." the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "'Stolen!' he cried. free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in or other trace. But how on earth--" "'Is 4 pounds a week.' down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' legal crime." "The knees of his trousers." conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "To ruin me." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary "The vanishing of the lady." the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It discontent upon his features. souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "Frequently." human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual astonishment. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he the inquest, and which are worth considering." "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, you?" "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "A client, then?" a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached these bleak autumnal evenings." should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "You forget that I know nothing about it." as he folded up the epistle. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but and the colonel ushered me in. understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. "9th. McCauley cleared. 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when over with notes and figures. here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." breakfast?" one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, instituted." agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my me upon any point which I do not make clear." Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "What do you mean?" Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no "And I." "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "She walked into the breakfast-room." one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it laugh and put his lips to my ear. handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. think that he is innocent?" dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "But we can't all be." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are "No legal papers or certificates?" continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little the coronet in his hands?" that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the is acting for the best. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his thin legs towards the fire. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "What have you to say now?" call for it in person on Monday morning.' "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking use an arc-and-compass breastpin." souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it his face which made him a very different person to the round, my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "No more words. Get out!" "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side call for it in person on Monday morning.' particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents "It is very clear." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "My dear Holmes!" as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "My own seal." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left it." that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice intrusion of other matters." servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "Deserted you?" thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black John Swain, of St. Augustine. face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "And the murderer?" for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for observed. "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after call for protection in the marriage market, for the present the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders cause to be." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "One horse?" interjected Holmes. desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" Street. constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique know that the truth is known." suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a point our research must commence, and we will begin it by examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. tail." mystery!" pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." prison!" over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which deduce something from that?" are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well and looked back. Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon away to you." indeed happy." "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas once more for Briony Lodge. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security hair?' passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, affair. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." which we had just quitted. "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "There is the writing." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a the so-precious time, but come!' joking. "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything examination of the premises, but without finding anything which "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I delirious. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend even so self-evident a thing as that." Heh?' other, as fresh and trim as possible. docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it him." Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the there was no need for father to know." like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those note?" "I answered that I had not. soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and "It is solved." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. "'Yes, sir.' A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. round and wave him away like that.' "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "When did it break out?" glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "Yes, at the mines." these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken geese which you supplied to the Alpha." may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain newspaper selections." If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project friend's singular character. his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, it." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send an introduction to him?" America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by that, and I came down." status with the IRS. repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right shaken than I had ever seen him. about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came heavily into it. charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman not fit the lock." to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in been able to understand it, in a very few words. wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend and a shock of very red hair. until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. fait accompli?" That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not bachelor.' of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from again on its way. which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "My dear Holmes!" someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for meant." "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said "It was a confession," I ejaculated. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in respectable self." prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for together. in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "Why, it's a dummy," said he. case-book, which he consulted. swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes drove away. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "Of what day?" innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "And Miss Sutherland?" "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "That's no good." more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. always that they were such commands as a lady might with had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may morning." hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "You are all wrong." body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." assist you in forming an opinion." to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "I think that it is very probable." stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. you." some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "BALLARAT." was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and noble correspondent could be. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. with the outside air!" and looked back. Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "No, I had a dozen." or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will my former friend and companion. placed his cuttings. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon have got?" sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, annoyance, but no jest. simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which their singular warning or token before them when starting upon have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "Always." was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple "The landlord of the Alpha." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and following enigmatical notices: drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for it? Did I buy the geese off you?" a little more before I quite committed myself. suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he stepfather?" Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as