considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were presented more singular features than that which was associated slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." such attractions and accomplishments?' eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and farthest east of the City. Hitherto his orgies had always been printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found slight indication of the course of events, I am able to guide "My dear Holmes!" he bowed and left the room without another word. homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "We must have a cab." collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting "Pray continue your narrative." walking." it." "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs problems help me to do so." evidence," I remarked. eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or information in his hands the value of which he did not himself "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took wedding?" 'please.'" anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance "What, then?" last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "In answer to an advertisement." "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a "How do you know, then?" covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" Watson," he said cordially. come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to considering the formidable letters which were received by himself Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in of them has the shutters up.' "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I know all about it," he snarled. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, I fancy, Watson. And in practice again, I observe. You did not neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just have one." Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "Yes." broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom entirely devoid of interest." thought that she would have been so carried away." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been lips." down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled "And that is--" maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the "No legal papers or certificates?" "I cannot imagine." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" to arrive at through this?" the bed, and you in that chair." not fit the lock." would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two row." particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait the loss of it. "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both are windows in it, of course?" misfortune impressed me. My sister and I, you will recollect, and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a unprofitable." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the III. posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "Where, then?" "Yes." to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a asked with his eyes open. cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them the so-precious time, but come!' "But how?" "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the see a sister of mine apply for." just ask you whether you had heard it.' at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a crackling voice. just called myself is not exactly my own." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and "Very murderous indeed." us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he I was concerned in it." "A confidential servant?" "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small Eyford at 11:15.' How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "No, but the enclosure is." nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "What, then, did Peterson do?" when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by "My dear Holmes!" "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, it means?" married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you system of imprisonment?" have been better. It is all right." by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and when you have done it." death." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, DISSOLVED. horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "My photograph." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would experiences." The King stared at him in amazement. "And what did you see?" sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of "None." submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who and the whole place is in a blaze." and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "Well?" "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper been lifted and conveyed somewhere." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' "None." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with will find little credit to be gained out of this case." may never be exposed to such a temptation." know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that national property. I was determined that the law should have its brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the trifles." (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then all-comprehensive glances. inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so morning." known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It that the gas is not laid on in his house?" the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing figure." "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "My private note-paper." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things all-comprehensive glances. future lives." entirely devoid of interest." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "Holmes, the busybody!" round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "He might." which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of families. Now for the facts. treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "You have it, sir, just as it happened." Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a ill-usage at the hands of fortune. Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "That is not quite so common, is it? Ah, me! it's a wicked world, "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will annoyance, but no jest. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said new acquaintance to Baker Street. The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of evidence," I remarked. suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some following enigmatical notices: by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which "Certainly." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into enter Dr. Roylott's room." that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have done what I asked you, Jones?" in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he all that?" of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining than to us. his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' the King without delay." son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means absolutely follow my advice in every respect." so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by the inquest, and which are worth considering." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. "I am armed." hour." "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. rose-bushes. everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "It is dated from Grosvenor Mansions, written with a quill pen, flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to hands. impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been Henry Baker is a member." "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "Yes, all." Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the suspect him." "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think "Won't it ring?" "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's "Indeed! Whose, then?" tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the along the entire front of the house, with three long windows of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would Literary Archive Foundation anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from "No." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I away to you." the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "How long did she speak to this Alice?" pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as call the police, let the police find what they can.' o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "'And the work?' a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, main points of my analysis." abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must his face which made him a very different person to the round, time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already "Stolen, then." Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. showing my impatience. her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." that he will be back before evening." "Deserted you?" for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly brought there to personate someone, and the real person is she slowly sank and died without having recovered her follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, you want, then?' "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" "And now?" He raised his hand. "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "No, I think that I'll take it." "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "Then what has happened to him?" himself to tell his story. we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled the station." photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary any little problem which you may submit to me." which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man of fine shops and stately business premises that they really stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to "I shall be delighted." same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very Again Holmes raved in the air. electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a "That also I could fathom." workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and public press." house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point child?' front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "I should like to see him very much." thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "And the murderer?" "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "It was an hour's good drive." Surrey." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into our word." is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "Will you bet, then?" resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "It may not come to that," said Holmes. your Highness to the police-station?" "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never populous neighbourhood." I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so to where he stood hid behind the curtain. across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now it." it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of "So I am. Very much so." "Deserted you?" the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "It is very clear." "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Yes." suggested at once that there must be a communication between the do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I mysterious business." A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual them?" sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which papers on the sundial.'" "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have American. Then who could this American be, and why should he three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. at a side door. there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from before, for it was considerably after midnight. At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then