grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "You have it, sir, just as it happened." "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "'Is 4 pounds a week.' indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and gigantic client. out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "I should be immensely obliged to you." "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I helping a boy to put up the shutters. "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you so far?" locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "What shall I do?" "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own into the room. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "It is a murder, then?" Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried where we are going." Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but strong and stiff." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off later, upon the night of May 2nd." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his have been better. It is all right." commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "You think that he is dead?" "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY I held the little printed slip to the light. invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then grasp, he hurried from the room. came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while there is a decided draught." have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. straightened it out again. "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two strength in the others." goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "I would give my fortune to have them back." having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the union?" her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he for its centre. my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "'Yes, I promise.' the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has already been minutely examined." son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in "But she could not love him." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed helping a boy to put up the shutters. trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "You heard nothing yourself last night?" to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence look dissatisfied." This is what he says: "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "Thank you. And your address?" pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by a monotonous occupation." was it brought him the coronet? "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my wedding?" woman." him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously how narrow had been my escape. annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a are, and they are waiting for us." the Assizes." with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very his wife has ceased to love him." desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "Yes, certainly." "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "Yes, certainly." fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying noise which awoke you from your sleep?" see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "Do you go out much in society?" There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of held up the lantern and gazed about him. known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused "Yes." done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the happened." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "My stepfather's business papers." naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "No, finished." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "By no means." "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "But the mystery?" black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "Married! When?" brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third of the efforts of the United States government and of the better the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever advice." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up undoubtedly my uncle's." lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. be.' have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question your co-operation." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "What could she mean by that note, Mr. Holmes? Do you think it believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety it with his own hands." I shall communicate with you." back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "He disappeared so suddenly." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "No, I am descending." "This photograph!" year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first followed. deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his since then to throw any light upon what became of him." see me here to avoid scandal." the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his London for the present?" "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can allusion to a rat. gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the cigars in the box." "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had "What steps will you take?" I asked. out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three children over to America with him, so that I found myself without 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to you understand?" "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must colour had been driven from his face. "In heaven's name, what for?" sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who salesman. serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if in his power. sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "Is he quiet?" true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." brought there to personate someone, and the real person is three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "His face fell immediately. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "Not I." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his was feeling which was the fattest.' "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "And you don't know his address?" lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his walking." But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she to me. but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." it." not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get the general public were present, then?" still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking chance." constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in comes from the middle window." "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure companion. pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "What have you to say now?" they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary evidence," I remarked. of Mr. Rucastle's." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton to go into your room and bar your shutters?" stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you noise which awoke you from your sleep?" send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the other, as fresh and trim as possible. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they me, and I could not think that his explanation of the said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with results." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking and the church but not where the lady lived." were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "Absolutely?" "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was go--none." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." it right.' together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which village inn over there?" not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor begin with, and I had not got mine yet." in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger she to prove their authenticity?" golden eyeglasses. outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming door?" something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "'And what salary do you ask?' over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the "Did he not advertise?" look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the ago." cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get back to my heart. there." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose could not account in any way for the presence of the missing errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it nothing with him." very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of stood on the top of it. I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is "No, I had a dozen." preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, shadow pass over his face as I spoke. "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "But it has twice been burgled." the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed you in yours." "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the I am not easy in my mind about them." over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change to where he stood hid behind the curtain. conclusions. mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "I have solved it." during which he might have communicated with his friend the "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it out of this horrible affair." I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the the stones. letters?" that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into Count Von Kramm." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always later, upon the night of May 2nd." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who lost his Christmas dinner." is so. I know all about McCarthy." Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that he bowed and left the room without another word. business at Coburg Square is serious." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who to talk it over. would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was which our visitor detailed to us. look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his meanly of me." "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of entirely lost his self-respect." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "Perfectly so." interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating good-night and bustled off upon her way. little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, when you have done it." to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, some place of shelter and let the county police know what has the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of own family. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of McCarthy." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban the morning and make my own way in the world.' in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was strange features which were associated with the two crimes which have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' pity, because in other respects you would really have done very than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon conclusions. Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my enter into my head. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and Count Von Kramm." very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man that I may have something better before very many minutes are Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged our word." that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his "Why, what do you mean?" my special province." down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and guilty one." my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic just ask you whether you had heard it.' three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. "'Is 4 pounds a week.' before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are go--none." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said