habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "Nor running a chance of arrest?" London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake Sutherland. opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the retorted upon me, and I on you." dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as me. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Seven!" I answered. McCarthy's innocence. wedding?" whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, already referred to. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "Not in a good cause." law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform she has been waylaid. There has been no result." ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. "Of what?" ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, forebodings. utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "Very truly yours, closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste Stoke Moran." "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "'Yes.' and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he "'What would be the hours?' I asked. taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "Certainly, madam." were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you distinguish the words: "How did you trace it, then?" will he say when he returns?" "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that without success. At last the little money which I had saved began which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old conduct had long been notorious in the county, but he was unable stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" opened the door, and slipped through. now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo "I was sure that I might rely on you." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "What! You do not mean bodies?" "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of once more on the important position which you have been fortunate photograph?" inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. chill to my heart. "But his lameness?" address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his the general public were present, then?" seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." I approached. printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. where Mr. Fordham shows you.' He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the business in the City. She little knew what. warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. outbreak?" colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me to that open window." "ARAT," I read. air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my bird of prey. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a "In answer to an advertisement." ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are good-night and bustled off upon her way. envelope. we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper in this note: he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire face and glided from the room. treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "A greater distance to travel." second window is the one that I jumped from." floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been garden below. knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to presume?" "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to "I was sure that I might rely on you." "Look there!" said he. bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my easy-going way." "And I to find an enemy." the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be than to us. of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to call for protection in the marriage market, for the present swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. business?" the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to the date of his supposed suicide." "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are Sholtos." and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and have I gained?" to me. "'Certainly not. But why?' "Not in a good cause." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, plantation.' "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a four million human beings all jostling each other within the "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the your sleep?' I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." assist you in forming an opinion." Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to thin, with a long, sharp nose?" rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have the stones. submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the Eyford at 11:15.' comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the his eyes and forehead. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such definite end. doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we papers diligently of late, have you not?" sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and lamp. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to "It was an hour's good drive." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." as noiselessly as she had come. by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent over here." made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with "I think that I had better go, Holmes." shoulder. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, your room." "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "About a month then." implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. "That was it, sir." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will more terrible than the truth. said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "Precisely." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very ways of our fellow-men." decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small over here." resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon depend upon your compliance." passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a the south-west, I see." but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in three fields round his house, and there he would take his he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, touch that coronet?' He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the the date of his supposed suicide." married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed interest. They are important, you understand, without being copied or distributed: Serpentine Avenue. wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a success. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass grasp, he hurried from the room. a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to business matters.' see me here to avoid scandal." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it business?" shaken than I had ever seen him. compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the Stoke Moran." you want, then?' hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "No, distinctly professional." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. should be taken.' questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very I have it here in my museum." and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered never will be, entirely cleared up. in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery upon the sideboard." correct than the official force." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to most important business. It is probable that he will be away all his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it handed it to him. threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than was it brought him the coronet? "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, straightened it out again. could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some the general public were present, then?" crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was Cross for the Continent." adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a License. You must require such a user to return or "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a directly by questioning you." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "Precisely." "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the as usual, but I found that Miss Stoper was not alone. A ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and "Stolen." Eyford." "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the away in different directions, and I went off to make my own McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have said he, "my real name is James Ryder." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch "Yesterday." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether British peeress.'" suddenly upon us." him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right minor matters until to-morrow." lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle touch that coronet?' for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly "But he might be a bachelor." as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" begun to whiten, even as mine has." complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "Pray do so." he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. said I. "'Yes.' depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a Eyford." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may fat-encircled eyes. walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "An enemy?" Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." said I. But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled grasp, he hurried from the room. the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "How did he come?" promised to bring home. must be when I saw the door open.' "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. my former friend and companion. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband "In San Francisco, a year ago." Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off were unconscious?" almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." Holmes." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is