perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "Ample." "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And minor matters until to-morrow." Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her shaken than I had ever seen him. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey which are rolled in Rotterdam." down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind soul! here is her carriage at the door." any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able past. keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "Certainly." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "What, then, did Peterson do?" chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. the night.' do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as "An enemy?" "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well crowd. some water from a caraffe. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "Will you go?" good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place as noiselessly as she had come. slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently the centre one to your sister's, and the one next to the main and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "Perhaps we may make them less so." to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had the Red-headed League." "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you served to weaken the effect. of Fenchurch Street." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the light and attacked it." a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I the coronet in his hands?" size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "Only as much as we can deduce." handed it to him. "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "Awake, Watson?" he asked. home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. Pope's Court. do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by swore that no one else had been in the front room during the "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "And from a noble client?" room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." "And the murderer?" my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "I beg pardon." was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and constraint." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, your troubles." methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police him. success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." was keenly on my guard against him. explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into said he. Arthur Conan Doyle outsides of the windows. nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours of fine shops and stately business premises that they really unprofitable." meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "His face fell immediately. the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' simple cases which are so extremely difficult." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as been with you?" presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly three of the beryls in it, was missing. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings washing it down with a long draught of water. young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a were unconscious?" 1.F. Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another His name is Francis Prosper." father's place of business?" doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she again, where I was soon asleep. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Then, how do you know?" now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my your room." electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "Here?" "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "And how in the world did you find them?" or in danger--" I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic hardly wander." leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened was keenly on my guard against him. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "I cannot imagine." the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "No more words. Get out!" "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his confronted him. must compliment you." of his shoulders. jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and article?" "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the and have this put in the evening papers." "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "How did you deduce the select?" and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I him. face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that His smile broadened. suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that with the outside air!" family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on within hail.' gone. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. Munro.' free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again about here speaks of his kindness to him." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, formed some opinion?" leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads do.' I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the it were putty." that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "What steps will you take?" I asked. travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City who was a member of your goose club." sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "Where, then, is my wife?" I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to have one." hurried away. looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the do." his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "You don't mind breaking the law?" and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be during that time.' dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' the morning and make my own way in the world.' lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon seven miles from Eyford Station.' him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was The telegram which we eventually received came late one night just called myself is not exactly my own." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been of the one which your family is now devouring." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "The vanishing of the lady." than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, "Oh, fresh and glossy." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy "Your French gold?" the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. thin, with a long, sharp nose?" at a side door. endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one the south-west, I see." necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My that you can jump it.' swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "'Yes.' from you?" the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll have got?" voice, changing her seat as requested. "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare becomes even more simple." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." made him keep the appointment." delighted to hear it," he said. digesting their breakfasts at home." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. upon a handsome competence. "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course disappearance of the bride.'" speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the a little more before I quite committed myself. you, my dear young lady?' are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "And when will you call?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "But how did you gain them?" than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little business." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. searched, without anything being found which could incriminate there has been an enclosure here!" which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself think that he is innocent?" her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, entirely devoid of interest." and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Surrey." but preventing her from injuring another. them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "Very truly yours, "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "No, but the enclosure is." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "'Is 4 pounds a week.' remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. upon the shelf for the interim." London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. John Swain, of St. Augustine. helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "You saw the ventilator, too?" "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a "At half-wages, in fact." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary yards of it?' his cane at the bell-pull. more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had October 9, 1890. flock.' "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off exactly what you advise." fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double fait accompli?" and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I straightened it out again. impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie evidence," I remarked. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this showing my impatience. Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one him to go away.' thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "I have my revolver," said I. "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "Perhaps I have." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had prisoner's face. "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, "That sounds a little paradoxical." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the that you can jump it.' either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter enough to aid us in our search." hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand father's young wife. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "And sit in the dark?" "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would opportunities to fix the problem. "Never to return." fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to good-night and bustled off upon her way. saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, six. Come in!" "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm charged with?" he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with touch that coronet?' that there was nothing in it, after all." the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "What! You do not mean bodies?" dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were