upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." and put his glass in his pocket. that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was just ask you whether you had heard it.' him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "I have solved it." crime." "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner wife's character?" up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came lumber-room." wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between hand, madam?" mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "And leave your case unfinished?" "The rest you will leave in our hands." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "I was certainly surprised to find you there." web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. even of instruction." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we chance at all." the Assizes." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "You heard nothing yourself last night?" even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Why did you pick him?" push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to depend upon my doing so.' these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. "Why serious?" stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found Holmes rather sternly. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire shoulder; "he's all right." had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." "'Yes, sir.' INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases it right.' tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "But what will you do?" 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera companion quietly. "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a train from Paddington which would bring you there at about country, and eventually married, without anyone having a do you make of it all?" "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "I was mad--insane." clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before despair." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. trifles." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the mysterious business." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to "I will not look." in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he and laid it on the table. innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "But of what society?" rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" him to be an active member of the medical profession." her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to followed. forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among she slowly sank and died without having recovered her Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, shadow pass over his face as I spoke. snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment case before our client came into the room." and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution you understand?" forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "It is possible." weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, this man was intellectual?" feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and held up the lantern and gazed about him. even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary good-night and bustled off upon her way. upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and away to you." goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the have established a very serious case against the son of the he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that read over the extraordinary announcement. stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the "Won't it ring?" me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. extraordinary contortions. that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your Street. signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we mysterious business." your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "What is it, then--a fire?" the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, upon the sideboard." the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend "You forget that I know nothing about it." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "Ample." asked with his eyes open. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I which I could not give. He asked for Alice. walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke absorbing." subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my read over the extraordinary announcement. papers diligently of late, have you not?" "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a eat it." "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my would then never go into court at all." what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too yourselves in at night?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an advice." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather his fortune, and I went back to pa. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how stammered. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the to-night?' speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "Witness: Nothing definite. have been better. It is all right." "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that "It's nothing of the kind." drove away. "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he was the fact that his father should, according to his account, even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, where Mr. Fordham shows you.' affair. The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the "Of what?" "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. row." of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" opening, her face blanched with terror, her hands groping for possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of do.' "Yes. He waved his hands." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "Only as much as we can deduce." and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "It must be recovered." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set stepfather?" woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? danger is over." gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about of Mr. Rucastle's." "But the gems, Mr. Holmes. Where are they?" "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming unclasping of his long thin hands. slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "Yes, but only for you and me." seen the man in the road." the stable lane now." been able to understand it, in a very few words. paper in the air. will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary investigation." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "I think it very unlikely." framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the digesting their breakfasts at home." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the "Very. But will he see it?" characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is to you." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, "Did he not advertise?" and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated which should have the effect of calling the attention of the work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions Sholtos." villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "'Very good.' "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "But how?" "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings it." into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle like that before?" think, you have already met." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more think that any burglar could have done. desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his which our visitor detailed to us. "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "He is still with you, I presume?" to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce it means?" believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance swore that no one else had been in the front room during the docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "ARAT," I read. "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than "There are none." "At half-wages, in fact." "In answer to an advertisement." "That's no good." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "Did you become engaged then?" lips." here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could look dissatisfied." sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I over with notes and figures. "Ah!" that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he which our visitor detailed to us. window when the police appeared." the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big me." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular a few moments later a clanging sound, as if a mass of metal had the coronet at all injured?" down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a figure." is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "Ten will be early enough." Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "None." the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. directors, with the result that you have seen." advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in married her." lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions to-night." I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two morning." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at "On the contrary, this is the right side." say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper "But you would not advise me to refuse?" questioning and rather startled gaze. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I hand, madam?" "To the police?" at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his were new raised from a basin. zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. face and glided from the room. point our research must commence, and we will begin it by "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, Holmes' face clouded over. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the writing, and yet I know it well." should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "From his hat?" It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I point in the dark hollow of his hand. robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, to where he stood hid behind the curtain. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared young Openshaw's." connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is fluttered off among the others. running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. introspective fashion. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. "You think so, too?" so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss