friends, not even his own brother. so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine bird of prey. skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "And how in the world did you find them?" companion. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' standing smiling on the door-step. really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and awaited us upon the table. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. read it out to me." from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had more terrible than the truth. "Yes, only one." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. weighed down with some great anxiety. "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "It is possible." the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest "And that is--" "Then I am your man." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "At the wedding breakfast." grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought round with crates and massive boxes. was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and individual and becomes the badge of a society." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no guilty one." word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his outside. 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court cup of tea. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "Ample." "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they triumphant cloud from his cigarette. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the Eyford." which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "Perhaps we may make them less so." "I don't say that. Perhaps." watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said "My opinion is in no way altered." confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I it." "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "What do you mean?" was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not events, Mr. Windibank!" don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." digesting their breakfasts at home." reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "It is possible." know all about it," he snarled. could gather together that I was able to avert another public "What, then?" machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so she might be summoned. "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly be there in time for your coming." "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" definite end. past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "Very well, sir. And this stone?" wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But disturbance in my wife." retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your "That is possible." "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the "By all means." bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a "It was." "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat constraint." "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "'Why that?' I asks. "How about poison?" sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in works. "Why did you pick him?" "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven my little problems." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had chance at all." forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes the little opening for the ventilator is." in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the have had none more fantastic than this." had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious gbnewby@pglaf.org circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir is four-and-twenty." the coronet in his hands?" outside. "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "But how will you look?" begun to whiten, even as mine has." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to might help us?" rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in "Nothing." tapping his fingers upon the table. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as Europe. To speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," as yours." before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the here." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass "No sign of it?" into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped purpose of examination. pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a forecastle of an emigrant ship. http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which corner of the building. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the Farm upon the left." heavy and sharp instrument." lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" frequently gained my first real insight into the character of he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." unkempt, staring out at me. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," again, where I was soon asleep. his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, tapping his fingers upon the table. Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the Dr. Gregory B. Newby during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was for securing the situation." "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "Where, then?" "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. clang of the bell. to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features Countess of Morcar's?" We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps me have 200 pounds?' wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without grasp, he hurried from the room. never will be, entirely cleared up. infinite languor in his face. that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Very. But will he see it?" that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind overpowering excitement and concern. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, mystery." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, morning." shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he retorted upon me, and I on you." "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, photograph?" signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "You have a clue?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is arresting Boone instantly, as he was allowed some few minutes "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "And why?" that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a and the church but not where the lady lived." luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst really the only notable feature about the thing." a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend closing the door. need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner Eyford." good-night and bustled off upon her way. "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do companion. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of British peeress.'" "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking flew open, and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room on in his house." year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter "Yes." have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady society." which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "My dear Holmes!" of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently "In answer to an advertisement." Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "Yes." he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have minor matters until to-morrow." is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in "That you are never beaten." case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "No." battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the to arrive at through this?" his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away galvanised. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was matters immensely." the nursery. we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I from his sleeves without a sign of cuff or shirt. He spoke in a cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend "And you don't know his address?" reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "Will you go?" "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" your troubles." and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "It is a murder, then?" inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things are very often connected not with the larger but with the in the hope of finding them." always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon pressing in one house as in another. "What, then?" the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge entirely devoid of interest." "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "My private note-paper." it." hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while what do you think they found in the pockets?" He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through at my own good fortune. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst "Yes, they were peculiar boots." and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon It was close upon four before the door opened, and a sneer upon his pale face. than to us. I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies golden eyeglasses. princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "Yes." "I will get her to show me." hurried by. "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." the date of his supposed suicide." "Was she in good spirits?" little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way where we are going." Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. some terrible trap for her." have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save was a perfect sample of the class. unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, drawing your inferences." that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest without success. At last the little money which I had saved began forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom "That was it, sir." "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to this Miss Turner." to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!"