He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I chair. fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found know all about it," he snarled. matters immensely." to where he stood hid behind the curtain. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for "Oh, yes, easily." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "It was." which I could not give. He asked for Alice. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the "My dear Holmes!" these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one of the one which your family is now devouring." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "To an end?" "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the of Fenchurch Street." interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one side. this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "'Certainly not.' "'What, the red-headed man?' With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "Why, what do you mean?" as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while to have been novel and of interest." someone who had been in Australia." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for Have you good authority for what you say?" absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are formed some opinion?" would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "Where, then?" "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there to miss it." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning your billet.' children over to America with him, so that I found myself without absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. the devil!" of it with the greatest attention. passage and a tap at the door. remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "'It is locked up,' I answered. nothing with him." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, chambers. can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been "You have but to name it." charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to chance." Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right "Entirely." "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said "Well, some hundreds of times." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my business in the City. She little knew what. daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be signal between you and your father? thought that she would have been so carried away." my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the because she had spent so short a time in this country that she read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural the loss of it. Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in again, where I was soon asleep. but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the it. "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked "I beg pardon." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the will be renamed. her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, it." pound a week." seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, read over the extraordinary announcement. upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "Did you observe the colour?" few hundred pounds.' The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "But he might be a bachelor." came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was one or two very singular points about this room. For example, opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "And Irene Adler?" would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "Holmes, the busybody!" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If along the entire front of the house, with three long windows central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our upon a handsome competence. showing my impatience. akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, all?" Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "At half-wages, in fact." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered "I should wish to." have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "Why, what do you mean?" the armchair which I pushed forward for him. writers could invent nothing more crude." "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those notes," he said. something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle our sitting-room, and ushering in a visitor. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when until night should bring an explanation. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his "Ah, but I was recommended to you." "A client, then?" eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out maiden herself was most instructive." Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my comes from the middle window." considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "How did you deduce the select?" "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "None. Neville wrote those words." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "It was a confession," I ejaculated. power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock I am not easy in my mind about them." himself to tell his story. "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in License. You must require such a user to return or drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the cost them two and thirty pounds." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is to his chemical studies. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "Thank you. Pray proceed." unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, tapping his fingers upon the table. British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." with you?" affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, showing my impatience. were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "'Then let me do so?' upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "Then I shall certainly come." came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "Certainly." he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. always that they were such commands as a lady might with "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker "Dirty?" Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there the side-table." Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, you?' that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in had a long day." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "Thank you. And your address?" you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, cause to be." sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but that before taking the final step I should like to submit the "'Never.' drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an than to us. I have it here in my museum." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. It was close upon four before the door opened, and a Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been events, Mr. Windibank!" the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a "What have you to say now?" "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my flock.' such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is assist you in forming an opinion." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "Yesterday." not, dad?" she asked. Dr. Gregory B. Newby We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. your own bird, so if you wish--" predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "What steps will you take?" I asked. in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "And now?" I asked. "'I have already given you my word.' with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of occurred." "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a have reasons to know that there are widespread rumours as to the which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen papers must be those that are destroyed.' "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to Where does the thing come from?' Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight intrusion of other matters." to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "And why?" "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a without success. At last the little money which I had saved began light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the "You think so, too?" see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." "My stepfather's business papers." ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was Eyford at 11:15.' the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, not come at once?" directly by questioning you." recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "But you can know nothing of this?" Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready 1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations disappearance of these gems?" her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "'I have heard so.' occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then "When did she vanish, then?" good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "It is very kind of you." "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem voice, changing her seat as requested. round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "You don't mind breaking the law?" "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "What!" he roared. when you have done it." good-night and bustled off upon her way. The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my unprofitable." "Only as much as we can deduce." "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look taking in every detail of the apartment. voice, changing her seat as requested. massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in the date of his supposed suicide." "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in "Did your wife hear all this?" "I have a cab outside." "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the once more on the important position which you have been fortunate from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "Is he quiet?" "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "Your sister is dead, then?" "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as appointment with me for six o'clock?" at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she the bottom.' becomes even more simple." broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he gigantic client. yet." guilty parties." is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been intrusion of other matters." Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year in this way: in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey upon the sideboard." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "Then you may be so with me." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert pressing in one house as in another. all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "Nearly eleven." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he