my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down I held the little printed slip to the light. presented more singular features than that which was associated "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray important." days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who woman." Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the was a perfect sample of the class. drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic the coronet in his hand?" deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him the devil!" without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "One horse?" interjected Holmes. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy never came back." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his yourselves in at night?" habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of round with crates and massive boxes. anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." The King stared at him in amazement. my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every mystery!" Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a cigars in the box." the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "What do you mean?" Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of go from here to the Strand." telegram would bring me down to your help." unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "You will not go there first?" human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were clanging. "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. him nearly every evening." "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another "I will get her to show me." Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my away into the river." impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have morning." but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right is now desirous of getting those letters back." to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his to affect your life." took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in The note was undated, and without either signature or address. traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to arrested. You then--" where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." begin with, and I had not got mine yet." Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the point in the dark hollow of his hand. "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "That's no good." It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you "I was mad--insane." have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with "Very much so." cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, question you as to those details which seem to me to be most and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "And you can do nothing until then?" you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the your equipment. every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately salesman. what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing Where does the thing come from?' a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned dates and names. Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there yourselves in at night?" is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in whether it answered to the description of any of their Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm again before evening." he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other in his power. him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "In San Francisco, a year ago." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "Yes." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me not fit the lock." "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew new duties?' charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United sufficient punishment." and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I one of the states of the Union." "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As done what I asked you, Jones?" kind enough to tell me what I should do." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon his fortune, and I went back to pa. into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger in one or two places in England?' was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To salesman. "But it has twice been burgled." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "I do." cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' she has been waylaid. There has been no result." bears upon the case?" "It is a murder, then?" your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms ceremony." know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an have not had my rubber." "Of what day?" in darkness. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "By train from Waterloo." chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "I know where it is." the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "But of what society?" and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands Holmes. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles coat-tails." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier case-book, which he consulted. journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "And why?" light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project notes," he said. hair?' and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the streets in alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' forecastle of an emigrant ship. every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already prison!" you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. the King without delay." thin legs towards the fire. few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. then?" grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "My dear Holmes!" sooner or later she must fall a victim. "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke tell him that I know him to be innocent." "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the "And why in hopes?" this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "He said that you could solve anything." a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "'Yes.' dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "Married! When?" any more." would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A of it with the greatest attention. 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs not fit the lock." job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. strode off upon his way. It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my geese which you supplied to the Alpha." which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical cause to be." "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand "A thing like a cleaver," said he. would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them "I came to find a friend." "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "Yes, all." unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "But his lameness?" truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "Here?" immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go "'Where could I find him?' finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been hands. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was pressing in one house as in another. answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can "What! a murderous attack?" have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and Gutenberg-tm License. quickly through a disagreeable task. disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the is now desirous of getting those letters back." "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case empty. through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its friends, not even his own brother. permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' coat-tails." "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you Munro.' business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of of fine shops and stately business premises that they really bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that learned something! Where are the gems?" analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the waste of energy." "'What, the red-headed man?' Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "Well, some hundreds of times." "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding is four-and-twenty." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to I held the little printed slip to the light. the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Ha! you find it so?" meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. thirty. chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being tell them apart.' a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "Stoke Moran?" said he. open." judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that retorted upon me, and I on you." burst into a hearty fit of laughter. my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on forbidden door. "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, away into the river." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray you in yours." eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, locked. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go always that they were such commands as a lady might with hour." effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but and capable of preserving a secret.' "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "But his lameness?" all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "'No, I know no one in these parts.' sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon them?" severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that death." Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "On the contrary, this is the right side." he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "My own seal." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "May I see it?"