counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with "The Cedars?" outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "And for present expenses?" light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' are, and they are waiting for us." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what and down near Briony Lodge once more, and to think over my plan papers." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of "There is the writing." paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the shall use the carriage to-night." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired question you as to those details which seem to me to be most "May I see it?" word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or in darkness. "How often?" was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "I will do it." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the "Of what day?" what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing that you saw all that I did." scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he London for the present?" found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a row." for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low served to weaken the effect. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the beyond words. man. hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "His face fell immediately. Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing all-comprehensive glances. the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "But I am all in the dark." process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "You have carte blanche." pound a week." "What can you not understand?" turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "You have the photograph?" and it need not interfere very much with one's other importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black "Because he was handy and would come cheap." with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "But your client--" "Yes, there are nearly always some there." a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into other means.' "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "I guessed as much." window when the police appeared." States. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "I will do it." spark where all is dark to me." outsides of the windows. would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's IS and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "'And the work?' loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "Perhaps we may make them less so." skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "'And what are they worth?' I asked. these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "No, I think that I'll take it." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Look there!" said he. o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." said I. had formerly been in part my own. Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of shall not find me ungrateful." with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than gone. "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug just called myself is not exactly my own." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the the house with me." "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "Deserted you?" It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "No more words. Get out!" "Could he throw no light?" "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon helping a boy to put up the shutters. as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "It surprised me." "You know me, then?" realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the key of the affair now." assist you in forming an opinion." sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a next day. "It must be recovered." call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible o'clock is it?" for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and case upon record where any man succeeded in braving it with '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. directly by questioning you." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be bell. Holmes whistled. and shall probably return to London by the evening train." fatally injured? national property. I was determined that the law should have its across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." you." Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "No bad?" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "A call for help, you thought?" ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a I shall continue with my miserable story. practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall and a shock of very red hair. 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "I have solved it." "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "And your mother is alive?" "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a "It is a murder, then?" "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman bell. Holmes whistled. at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my Heh?' the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's "Then he might have called to you?" "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were you." eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now "Where did you address your letters, then?" "It is very kind of you." "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband, a very silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the "That you are never beaten." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really a monotonous occupation." "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too floor. is," said he presently: said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of skylight. passage and a tap at the door. They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better that you saw all that I did." glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the works. "Yes." the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "This concluded the examination of the witness." quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and will he say when he returns?" India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. the very morning of the wedding." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap fear." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on never to learn it at all." drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling chance at all." dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "No, I think that I'll take it." pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while Lee, in the county of Kent." left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY get the tickets." at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by "'Then let me do so?' near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter must be when I saw the door open.' "And why?" "My own seal." the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight himself to hunt down. after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no useful material for showing traces. The double line a little heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving from the pool I heard a cry of "Cooee!" which was a usual signal I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "I will not look." doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "I am about to be married." "Ample." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing meant." it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Then you may be so with me." roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were it." which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' "'Ample.' "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the yourselves in at night?" face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to letters?" "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "Your presence might be invaluable." is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside the little opening for the ventilator is." cheerful." really the only notable feature about the thing." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." forehead. wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A an introduction to him?" "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "Not in a good cause." His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "She walked into the breakfast-room." residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a throat." the inner apartment." beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. business." hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed once more on the important position which you have been fortunate electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "9th. McCauley cleared. well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "One?" once more for Briony Lodge. "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in you give your casting vote to?" must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one man. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you off." now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." with you?" "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, nonsense.' tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and such person." wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Stoke Moran?" said he. "Well, it is a possible supposition." his fortune, and I went back to pa. "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "ARAT," I read. his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to which our visitor detailed to us. "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "Imitated." rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "Well, some hundreds of times." at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through do.' actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very It may be so in this case, also." from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "Well, but China?" interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots unclasping of his long thin hands. the running down." "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience sound at heart." knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he point in the dark hollow of his hand. before, for it was considerably after midnight. drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was again before evening." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it drawing your inferences." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "Very well, sir. And this stone?" cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "There is the writing." them?" have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' had died away into the silence from which it rose. of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She "My dear Holmes!" "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking The summons was a brief and urgent one. returning from some small jollification and was making his way his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a door?" absolutely follow my advice in every respect." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend,