Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and the matter?" pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "That was it, sir." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my call it cruel." said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "What then?" which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. forbidden door. "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting come either from the window or the door. My attention was "'As governess?' the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when several quiet little villages up there." "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you was a perfect sample of the class. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. infinite languor in his face. "You have it, sir, just as it happened." the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in "Of what?" "You have it, sir, just as it happened." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that was feeling which was the fattest.' collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I the dangers which encompass me." springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said in his hands." first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "I cannot say that I have." and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing I held the little printed slip to the light. "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "I cannot as yet see any connection." "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "She showed me, as I told you she would." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "VIOLET HUNTER." she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "My photograph." hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "'You doubt its value?' he asked. be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the woman." tension within him. of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and sneer upon his pale face. he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "You have the photograph?" "Holmes!" I whispered, "what on earth are you doing in this den?" go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its would apply.' as this. Pray let me have the details." his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was was keenly on my guard against him. suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had and the church but not where the lady lived." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "Then I do not see the point." ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "I have come for advice." following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what for its centre. unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" forehead. name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "ARAT," I read. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." "At what time?" gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "None." "I know where it is." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the congratulate you again." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "No, thank goodness, she did not." came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "Who was the criminal, then?" "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no "Murdered?" Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "None." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments clang of the bell. card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had better grown goose." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was quick march!" certainly do as you advise." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "The King of Scandinavia." insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. the station." over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but bore every mark of being an average commonplace British went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first "Of what day?" what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom round and wave him away like that.' thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. "What then?" framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the bearing upon the case." too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into as he folded up the epistle. borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Dark enough and sinister enough." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "No bad?" see me here to avoid scandal." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss security.' scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That jewels which you have stolen?' pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must in a very precise fashion." Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock "In the cells." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "'Entirely.' "And your father? Did you tell him?" the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. quite distinctive." ways of our fellow-men." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. man. "How can you tell that?" neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "It is his hat." immense strength, and absolutely uncontrollable in his anger. have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "On Monday." villagers almost as much as their master. painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the ways of our fellow-men." had a long day." "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, "Murdered?" little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble place no limit on the sum I may draw." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed Watson," he said cordially. "So I have heard." seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." to take care of herself." them?" It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" "And I say east," said my patient. "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he perplexity from it to my illustrious client. old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "'Is 4 pounds a week.' set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were test if we have an answer to our advertisement." 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." habit of advancing money.' untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down down from London to inquire more deeply into it." anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to get the tickets." his face which made him a very different person to the round, however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed lamp. "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send enter Dr. Roylott's room." "Well, it is a possible supposition." "It is very clear." always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. Foundation a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary during the last few years, and there are many noble families to prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "Certainly." keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "BALLARAT." the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Certainly." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." is worth.' confronted him. "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is really the only notable feature about the thing." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings will not take me long to tell. slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as appeared upon the scene." studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I suddenly upon us." against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. silent! Oh, he will be silent!' of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond "I think it very unlikely." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "A greater distance to travel." "What is it?" is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the "You did not overhear what they said?" heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' "'What then?' I asked. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only lids now and glanced across at his visitor. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, cost them two and thirty pounds." undoubtedly my uncle's." "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the your only hope of safety." "Deserted you?" glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, "And for present expenses?" I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I them?" "And help." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my "Oh, yes, easily." and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "That is easily got." learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I upon an income of about 60 pounds." Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the photograph a cabinet?" pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the call you and give you the chance." bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he examination of the premises, but without finding anything which year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were once more. screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought Munro.' certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "This photograph!" Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "But I am all in the dark." "Well?" "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, signal between you and your father? "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, "And how have you succeeded?" "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. "Do you go out much in society?" satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, "He slept on the premises." fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. "But he might be a bachelor." that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what frequently gained my first real insight into the character of "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end would be as well for you to have your pistol ready."