great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to to me. his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this skylight. extraordinary contortions. "Yes, only one." "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "It is true that I have been generally successful." up this clue while it is still hot." peculiar to him. photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the this poor creature." "Pray do so." "Do you go out much in society?" glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His door and into it. I only caught a glimpse of her at the moment, Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "You have a clue?" while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an written. was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, with her." reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he some mystery and the punishment of some crime." key turn in the lock." at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What maiden herself was most instructive." in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. cigar and let me expound." "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your "A greater distance to travel." "This photograph!" "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. room. "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, she has been waylaid. There has been no result." "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." "That's no good." secret." double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked to talk it over. "I think it very unlikely." round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." forbidden door. McCarthy's innocence. company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "That was it, sir." a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "To ruin me." homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. must compliment you." woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "Yes." following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said "Texas, I think." o'clock is it?" robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "Yes, sir." in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which colonel looking down at me. "Then you may be so with me." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured wedding?" any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "And the murderer?" "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "My stepfather's business papers." 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "His face fell immediately. d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "'There is a drive, then?' screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, I nodded to show that I had heard. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the front of the hall door has given its name to the place. step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the likely to be some crony of the landlady's." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. long narrative. All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, writer." Pope's Court. Holmes rather sternly. "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, The events in question occurred in the early days of my I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "And your mother is alive?" you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "And you don't know his address?" carried out of court." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "And Miss Sutherland?" edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and IS Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for threw himself down with his face to the pillow. as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle province." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he questionable one." the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "'And the work?' evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this which are rolled in Rotterdam." dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "'What, the red-headed man?' not fit the lock." surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Heh?' did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "Yesterday." fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the guilty parties." the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and call for it in person on Monday morning.' went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under have been better. It is all right." "No, distinctly professional." Again Holmes raved in the air. instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. "In what way?" asked Holmes. down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "I am about to be married." "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear "Perfectly so." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door his huge brown hands. "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when as yours." him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That gigantic client. danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become an introduction to him?" washing it down with a long draught of water. had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "My dear Holmes!" "What, then?" point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "But your client--" explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a will take you up to see the machine.' never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and colonel looking down at me. envelope. about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the strode off upon his way. ventilator." to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we it means?" his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "I cannot as yet see any connection." Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "But to whom?" "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the gbnewby@pglaf.org have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "You did not overhear what they said?" "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand despair." can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that little trying to do so much typewriting?" platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the followed. "No bad?" had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Well, some hundreds of times." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." not within a twentieth part of the market price." rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is him. inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. was keenly on my guard against him. in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "And now?" He raised his hand. "Oh, yes, easily." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in introspective fashion. "But of what society?" "No bad?" my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' secret." that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess to preserve impressions. I passed along the tradesmen's path, but "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of or in danger--" found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." went to the Alpha were town bred." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. be sorry for having acted so harshly." had picked up in the wood. eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight gone before you can get him to hospital." "Yes." Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight all that?" to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely room?" away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, way: and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" to a more successful conclusion." dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and unclasping of his long thin hands. Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "Have you her photograph?" "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my had a long day." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, the very morning of the wedding." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood which we had just quitted. "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she this truth that in these little records of our cases which you reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has Again Holmes raved in the air. "No sign of it?" untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to it." the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where shag which I had seen upon the previous night. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who heavily into it. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your spark where all is dark to me." dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," them present such singular features as the strange train of propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without "What then?" noble correspondent could be. c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own night.' said he. 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The she might be summoned. strange features which were associated with the two crimes which gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so "If so, much may have happened between." labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a Still, that little may as well be cleared up to make the case his forehead." vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." prisoner's face. "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' upon the sideboard." cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "Do you go out much in society?" "What! Had he lost his wife?" woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the other means.' whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. the general public were present, then?" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was to surprise her." Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and past. make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you "Why did you beat the pavement?" "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of salesman. Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to "I am all attention, madam." hardly wander." with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down the bed, and you in that chair." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and outbreak?" his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "What will you say?" He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of that understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some shall not find me ungrateful." crime." he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew