Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she "I have come for advice." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body This is what he says: "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; attention." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a front of the hall door has given its name to the place. "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "Then, as to money?" after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is singular points about the case. What did the police think of the was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed himself. the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my round and wave him away like that.' "But you can know nothing of this?" answer." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "Dr. Becher's." weapon." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a him!" lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John man. over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut tear off another piece?' Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "I was afraid that you were engaged." the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to "Dirty?" a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "They are typewritten," I remarked. expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a that I may have something better before very many minutes are firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. suspect him." which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "And I to find an enemy." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is one which it was hard to resist. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little coat-tails." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and very peculiar words of the dying woman?" I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, that he has suffered." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in without success. At last the little money which I had saved began I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. his knees, staring into the fire. "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have you." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old within hail.' "In San Francisco, a year ago." his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of must compliment you." "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even "How did you deduce the select?" inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that Countess of Morcar's?" him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This "About a month then." intrusion of other matters." dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, "I would give my fortune to have them back." "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "Pray be precise as to details," said he. charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses Edgeware Road. "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his became a certainty. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "You horrify me!" august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a things are very often connected not with the larger but with the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously October 9, 1890. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and started for the Temple to see my husband. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another gbnewby@pglaf.org silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "'Which dealer's?' to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the it? Did I buy the geese off you?" sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" of his shoulders. year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really followed. that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, "I have seen the police." "Not particularly." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "'Where could I find him?' American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have "Was your sister dressed?" a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the families. Now for the facts. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the of it with the greatest attention. I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." "Of Friday, June 19th." he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in national property. I was determined that the law should have its "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door disappearance of the bride.'" 'I should be able to look after that for you.' which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "What have you done?" asked Holmes. very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Then you may be so with me." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "'No, I know no one in these parts.' had no one to advise her at such a crisis." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to "You heard nothing yourself last night?" Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, three fields round his house, and there he would take his something of him before." every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "But I have heard all that you have heard." whether we should go on to this Mrs. Oakshott to-night, or master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I second window is the one that I jumped from." said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by purpose equally well?" that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said ill-usage at the hands of fortune. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we eat it." WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO sofa. This way, please!" or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began photograph?" moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and were unconscious?" which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "Nothing?" "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." visitors." refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few husband's writing, madam." incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before I shall continue with my miserable story. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "Yes." red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS putting in the horse. "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "Dirty?" "ARAT," I read. than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. that the gas is not laid on in his house?" have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition hurried by. plantation.' outside." III. headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. of." morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "What of this 'Cooee!' then?" moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left "From his hat?" "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and the side-table." the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in within hail.' "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or crackling voice. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to of Mr. Rucastle's." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." have not had my rubber." his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it charge against him will break down." "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "It is no ordinary one." claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a she used." "We must have a cab." "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez results." initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped strode off upon his way. charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the into smoke like so many pistol shots. Our footfalls rang out crime." manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector was keenly on my guard against him. points to suicide?" "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "Yes, sir." and inquire as to the address." once more for Briony Lodge. 1.F. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "Very well, sir. And this stone?" and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to and the colonel ushered me in. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "What will you do, then?" in your London, you will know that the office of the company is "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, should be so warm over such a trifle." iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done tapping his fingers upon the table. "And now?" He raised his hand. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss and shall probably return to London by the evening train." "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "But who is he?" "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "Just look it up, then." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly dear old homesteads?" and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the American. Then who could this American be, and why should he with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a quick march!" office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable fluttered off among the others. Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after lost nothing by them." way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great fat-encircled eyes. "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such coroner's jury." it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second "Where did he live, then?" might help us?" His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several new duties?' "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove the bottom.' passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' prisoner's face. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, not, dad?" she asked. "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before chance at all." "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day use an arc-and-compass breastpin." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "'Certainly not. But why?' other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Certainly, madam." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to him, that man would not have given me such complete information "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank get her out of the way." "'Then let me do so?' interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks that threaten you."