When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the make me his representative both with the servants and with the "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or presented more singular features than that which was associated distance from the station, and there we found the young lady Street. comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." Have you good authority for what you say?" Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "At half-wages, in fact." "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I both be extremely obliged.' looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "Where to?" "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action peculiar to him. not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a there were one or two details which were new to me. But the Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right question you as to those details which seem to me to be most cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him of note-paper. It read in this fashion: PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of remarked. "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached "Yes." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the "The murder was done with it." nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "But how will you look?" "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "That you are never beaten." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My brought there to personate someone, and the real person is you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, years and eight months have elapsed since then. During that time whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than in this note: been with you?" a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low "'And the work?' reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "Then how many are there?" ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We "What will you do, then?" by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," your co-operation." real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the signal between you and your father? This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, without success. At last the little money which I had saved began accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest vanished into the darkness. let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "I cannot tell." throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the the iron safe, which he closed upon it. address. "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "'As governess?' really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "I cannot imagine." while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. of your young ladies.' wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There Miss Holder?" vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the province." "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in weary and pale-looking. "Yes, sir." hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and Scotland Yard. With him we drove to the Hereford Arms where a think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and be.' America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had "But his left-handedness." glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked way in." Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped to miss it." "But what will you do?" house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "Was the window open?" demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That "Very well, sir. And this stone?" few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, had this final quarrel? was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it fact, we may call it conclusive." opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his breakfast?" shag which I had seen upon the previous night. Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. "But what will you do?" see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "'Tell me all about it,' said I. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, that, and I came down." "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." crime." Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the think that he is innocent?" "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. situation." make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, I held the little printed slip to the light. returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that lips." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his orange pips. her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "I answered that I had not. as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" call for protection in the marriage market, for the present cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." go back?" "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of "To an English lawyer named Norton." profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to His name is Francis Prosper." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" Serpentine Avenue. mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "It is very kind of you." "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE prison!" bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day showing my impatience. "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another works. See paragraph 1.E below. guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "Pray let us have it, for all that." which we had just quitted. my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible go back?" "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "Well?" "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must details should find their way into the papers. Inspector "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." during the last few years, and there are many noble families to with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under the untimely death of the lady to whom the pledge was given. It boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand it." his forehead." knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of might have a private word with us. did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "There are none." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a six. Come in!" what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching because she had spent so short a time in this country that she repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster "We must have a cab." fled together." has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the in darkness. him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. eat it." should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed beg that you will break it off." "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party peculiar to him. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' again." silent! Oh, he will be silent!' where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." prove to be little relation between the different incidents of Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of "Certainly." said he. before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "Why did you beat the pavement?" It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by o'clock is it?" their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." "He slept on the premises." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. important." occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is is," said he presently: the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw could go. I took the paper from him and read as follows: post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his red silk, but was a good deal discoloured. There was no maker's that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I were wasted." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded within hail.' half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater daughter had disappeared, Mr. Aloysius Doran, in conjunction with have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own pierced for earrings?" which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Well, down they came to the west country, there was no shaking sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a "The murder was done with it." the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "I am sure." "Pray let us have it, for all that." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' "And what did you learn from him?" my special province." "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." woman." "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant really the only notable feature about the thing." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, shoulder; "he's all right." charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I such person." "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's to miss it." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! what is your own theory as to what took place?" was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at three fields round his house, and there he would take his the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses "It goes to the housekeeper's room." again, where I was soon asleep. have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you "Yes." "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, But Holmes shook his head gravely. drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" means taking possession of that which another person has a prior for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did conduct the inquiry." fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to "Nothing." serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "I have solved it." "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the fact, we may call it conclusive." little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "That is it on the dressing-table." and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "'Where have you put it?' asked Arthur. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not for securing the situation." legal crime." received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise amused." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked not interfere, come what may. You understand?" snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely "I will try. What is it?" "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, together. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the down from London to inquire more deeply into it." a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" Clair, of Lee." a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." three of the beryls in it, was missing. to Leatherhead. with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "My last client of the sort was a king." "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you as this. Pray let me have the details." me, for I knew one or two things about him; so I made up my mind with some details as to your case." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." learned something! Where are the gems?" set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the remarked. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I "Very truly yours, placed his cuttings. likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I "And how in the world did you find them?" I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" to me. Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer.