But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, said I. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced better grown goose." DAMAGE. you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "Then what has happened to him?" my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "'And what salary do you ask?' swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's wanted for ourselves." "But how?" have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his touch that coronet?' soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp of the efforts of the United States government and of the better "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain the King without delay." of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "And how in the world did you find them?" purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an notes," he said. villagers almost as much as their master. heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I very peculiar words of the dying woman?" the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked you in your example." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was chambers. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." formed some opinion?" stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as companion. laugh and put his lips to my ear. I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." green of the new foliage. "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest present." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." to have that photograph." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were eat it." "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men "Stoke Moran?" said he. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a that, and I came down." greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, putting in the horse. and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "But he might be a bachelor." in. that he will be back before evening." happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set certainly not very gracious." loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a danger is over." "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "Pray continue your narrative." and put his glass in his pocket. "No legal papers or certificates?" "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had both be extremely obliged.' "You think so, too?" creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "Always." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "One of the highest in England." deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "Pray let us have it, for all that." means taking possession of that which another person has a prior in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank anything to do with the matter?" lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were fatally injured? union?" black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and at home. what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "But you would not advise me to refuse?" ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make photograph?" "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but weighed down with some great anxiety. should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last "Then how many are there?" like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, before the coroner and the police-court." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said companion imperturbably. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to 'I should be able to look after that for you.' outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to and inquire as to the address." believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, observed. wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as more terrible than the truth. "'I shall certainly be there.' still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear "In answer to an advertisement." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "Was there a secret marriage?" police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I soul! here is her carriage at the door." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no "Yes, there are nearly always some there." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "He might." was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "Witness: I must still refuse. "It is his hat." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "Yes." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from people in all walks of life. had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes "It is possible." the best of training." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I "She told me to ask you." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found compunction about shooting them down." on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of handed it to him. poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a thought that she would have been so carried away." him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On "Ha! you find it so?" glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to "'Then let me do so?' Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she call the police, let the police find what they can.' years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "And Miss Sutherland?" As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and Lee, in the county of Kent." Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor "No, finished." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as business came to an end." swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "Dr. Becher's." animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." overpowering excitement and concern. as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "Who by?" "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "How did you trace it, then?" anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "You horrify me!" chambers. "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down made his money." "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim From what you have told me I think that it is possible that chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** "I warn you that they are very incomplete." at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "He said too much." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return spare." southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came dates and names. the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for this man was intellectual?" roused himself from his reverie. observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside tail." out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora someone who had been in Australia." stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "No?" received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the shag which I had seen upon the previous night. impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's may never be exposed to such a temptation." Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have away in different directions, and I went off to make my own carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, what these perils are?" Foundation third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all o'clock is it?" brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my I leave." young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six over his head with a sweet womanly caress. course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of chosen, inspiring pity by my ghastly face and filling my pockets the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. Munro.' "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should or other trace. But how on earth--" "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than ran thus: "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary do.' "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about "That is easily got." with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had despaired of." is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. your room." one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City and the whole place is in a blaze." strength." "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious at home. a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." of Fenchurch Street." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "But you can know nothing of this?" "Ah, but I was recommended to you." and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during morning." not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a this poor creature." a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "The rest you will leave in our hands." a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he pity, because in other respects you would really have done very confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every "And Irene Adler?" "What! You do not mean bodies?" again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' presented which may be striking and bizarre without being when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "The decline of his fortunes, then?" making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "I would give my fortune to have them back." acquaintance?" like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "I am to be neutral?" of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a and I shall be with you presently." favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as morning." slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. "Yes, he did." signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The father's young wife. smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, crime. "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, which are rolled in Rotterdam."