"But I have heard all that you have heard." Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And fire. You quite follow me?" "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City garden below. "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they presented which may be striking and bizarre without being hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I as he folded up the epistle. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance 1.F. front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again "'About the same.' once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was that he has suffered." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired have got?" which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he Pope's Court, Fleet Street." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally "Never." but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "'Stolen!' he cried. landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips III. him. least a most suspicious remark." "Which surely he restored to their owner?" "Oh, fresh and glossy." their singular warning or token before them when starting upon home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "What?" moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should use an arc-and-compass breastpin." I said then, that a man should keep his little brain-attic "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up the best of training." once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must Sholtos." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me Sutherland. "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. "We must have a cab." in. have accepted such a situation. black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. done what I asked you, Jones?" cause to be." law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite respectable self." "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he hand, madam?" "'Yes.' sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his in my life." whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. green-scummed pool, which lay at the foot of the garden. There to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or said he. which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry "So it appears." of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had matter." you?" "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I have an American origin." "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "One of the highest in England." heavy and sharp instrument." "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and straightened it out again. you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian that I can to serve you." "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied it." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had "And I." had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "That sounds a little paradoxical." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes call the police, let the police find what they can.' If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project and glanced through. months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" "Yes. He waved his hands." sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired "Certainly, madam." I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The upon an income of about 60 pounds." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from have had none more fantastic than this." breakfast and whispered something to her husband. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an them present such singular features as the strange train of Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "'In my own bureau.' even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. "Well, but China?" zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the "The rest you will leave in our hands." act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem "It certainly sounds feasible." The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that "But you have hopes?" "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the Count Von Kramm." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "At what time?" should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall kind enough to tell me what I should do." tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the tragedy. voice. general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "It goes to the housekeeper's room." the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in "That is unusual in a young girl." Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." weighed down with some great anxiety. creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to and capable of preserving a secret.' "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. the side-table." his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a arrested. You then--" "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out have been better. It is all right." "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer both be extremely obliged.' took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a late!' as he folded up the epistle. and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive outbreak?" "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning there was no need for father to know." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend DAMAGE. course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would the very morning of the wedding." and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "No. His orders were to stay in the house." one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "My private note-paper." which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for yourselves in at night?" back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings nothing of it?" himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to best detective that ever lived. "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower written. difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one even so self-evident a thing as that." "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. to-night." Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "You forget that I know nothing about it." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was I approached. have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the conduct the inquiry." workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, Serpentine Avenue. Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid residence of the great financier. master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the detective. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up light and attacked it." "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the three fields round his house, and there he would take his true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." do.' Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay which I had given. 'It's only Carlo, my mastiff. I call him mine, only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. wedding?" and laid it on the table. I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San appeared upon the scene." and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a exactly what you advise." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and "And that is--" some place of shelter and let the county police know what has to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out "Yes, he did." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. disappearance of the bride.'" vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as and shall probably return to London by the evening train." more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before should be taken.' window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "And you can do nothing until then?" the south-west, I see." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "In heaven's name, what for?" tell him that I know him to be innocent." "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged there was no need for father to know." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the allusion to a rat. happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, to talk it over. hard-headed British jury." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a cigars in their mouths. known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a are, I think, all that we need." earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "No legal papers or certificates?" man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a fat-encircled eyes. only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect McCarthy." caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been comes from the middle window." she might be summoned. who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "When did it break out?" enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "Yes, from Horsham." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "It surprised me." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "And I to find an enemy." nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the "Then the page we have seen--" surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "This photograph!" in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were "But I am all in the dark." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin you in your example." more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." explanation. He hardly spoke a word the whole way out to the upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be "What! a murderous attack?" "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would something of him before." I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. to have been novel and of interest." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "'And the work?' As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have hair?' every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "We were both in the photograph." leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed McCarthy's innocence. I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems what these perils are?" a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "Frequently." closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few "I will, Miss Turner." Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a front of me. but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "When did it break out?" you." ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Did you observe the colour?" little trying to do so much typewriting?" As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. all that?" face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps