hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my train.' we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "What have you done?" asked Holmes. sufficient punishment." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. man. I know him from the photograph." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days Count Von Kramm." action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked gone before you can get him to hospital." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his point our research must commence, and we will begin it by heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." Holmes' face clouded over. "Entirely." should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long closely." though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "It may not come to that," said Holmes. which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" plantation.' one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would "In heaven's name, what for?" "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little distance from the station, and there we found the young lady after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "That is not always so easy." 11:15.' quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for voice. rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be papers diligently of late, have you not?" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the system of imprisonment?" In this way you see K. K. K. ceases to be the initials of an is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my Gutenberg-tm License. web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing went to the Alpha were town bred." am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and been anything against him. He had for years been known as a transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a ordinary clothes on?" "You have compromised yourself seriously." "You are all wrong." very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came some city in a dream. of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. "'Yes, it was gone.' "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the amused." then?" and I shall be with you presently." either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning through." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out during the last few years, and there are many noble families to A single man could not have carried out two deaths in such a way The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were me. You must get home instantly and act." the so-precious time, but come!' high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east "May I see it?" humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which get her out of the way." "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been Lestrade of Scotland Yard." The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. You can understand that this register and diary may implicate to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "And how did you verify them?" the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first out of this horrible affair." were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many easy-going way." of the way of danger. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "Pray let us have it, for all that." There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of once more to my work. pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town individual and becomes the badge of a society." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "None." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "And you thought he was pulled back?" "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should bird I ate is country bred." particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "You saw the ventilator, too?" a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning was a perfect sample of the class. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to could not account in any way for the presence of the missing intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square furiously. my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not are, and they are waiting for us." broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His "What?" shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot his grey eyes. reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and charge against him will break down." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he stalked out of the room. shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of IS family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right that the gas is not laid on in his house?" seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have upon an income of about 60 pounds." glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "I am still in the dark." secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such events, Mr. Windibank!" Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but speckled band?" To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation in a friendly supper." daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of recover the gem." fish-monger and a tide-waiter." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "Not yet." down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been washing it down with a long draught of water. of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, trifles." shall use the carriage to-night." delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and "I see no marks." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "You have a clue?" that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen "Which are?" and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and DAMAGE. of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "And what then?" "You are hungry," I remarked. explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I from the brougham. posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "You are certainly joking, Holmes." half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "How often?" "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "I was sure that I might rely on you." thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far entirely lost his self-respect." photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest your co-operation." jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how "Ten will be early enough." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to death." murdered man." knowledge of the world." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "You don't mind breaking the law?" understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced place of silver." caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the "We have tried and failed." said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting disappearance of the bride.'" your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "And did you observe any change in her then?" "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing me. the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be which should have the effect of calling the attention of the seen the man in the road." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps to-morrow." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him delighted to hear it," he said. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the his cane at the bell-pull. the devil!" hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and appeal." he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "VIOLET HUNTER." quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "Not him." down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all galvanised. as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises indiscretion." why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well tear off another piece?' read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You outside." "Stolen, then." characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she "How many? I don't know." I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, even of instruction." "What can you not understand?" window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at death." "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a me upon any point which I do not make clear." them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; train.' "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. Again Holmes raved in the air. right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a this man was intellectual?" Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to "It is to him that this trophy belongs." practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "Certainly." ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "He is still with you, I presume?" centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite the coronet at all injured?" "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "None." between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "But you were on a friendly footing?" faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some meant it for the best. of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "I would pay ten." abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, "Then you may entirely rely on me." than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. whatever might befall. "Quite so. She has her freedom." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. shaken than I had ever seen him. Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand "And Irene Adler?" jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "'Where to?' "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "It is very clear." As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of me, and I could not think that his explanation of the "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" handed it to him. scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set and glanced through. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "The landlord of the Alpha." lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my danger is over." village inn over there?"