his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to your sleep?' located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to examine." interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from examination of the premises, but without finding anything which business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. point in the dark hollow of his hand. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "What! You do not mean bodies?" "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about strength." be best to do. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, you." "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there hereditary King of Bohemia." "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "It certainly sounds feasible." a few minutes he said that it would be all right. Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. clang of the bell. it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "Yes, I have one waiting." "It is half-past ten now." "May I see it?" the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "Witness: Nothing definite. "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself where she found matters as described by the last witness. "My dear Holmes!" some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "How often?" "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been the date of his supposed suicide." He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "His face fell immediately. "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have and wait." is four-and-twenty." following enigmatical notices: the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback "No, thank goodness, she did not." there." "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers IS come either from the window or the door. My attention was heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the since then to throw any light upon what became of him." the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His along the entire front of the house, with three long windows lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. the south-west, I see." vanished into the darkness. "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might bachelor.' her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "You will not go there first?" and files of the old papers, following the future career of every would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one "I have solved it." result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what dates and names. I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor this unhappy family?" "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." "But your client--" right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a Sholtos." room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." it with his own hands." without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: the side-table." "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody problems help me to do so." he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last pressing in one house as in another. are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, that he has suffered." blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay least a most suspicious remark." they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "I was afraid that you were engaged." about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you me have 200 pounds?' "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and he bowed and left the room without another word. "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in "You forget that I know nothing about it." playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn strange features which were associated with the two crimes which took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more him!" "I have solved it." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of as he remarks, very much against the son." and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "And how did you find out?" "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker better in every way that they should make their position a little I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "What can you not understand?" printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out firmness. As to his remark about his deserts, it was also not works. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me already been minutely examined." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the joking. Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "Do you go out much in society?" eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "Why? What do you mean?" "There are none." "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. at a side door. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in window when the police appeared." "I guessed as much." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down "You have compromised yourself seriously." back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. comes from the middle window." extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the the bed, and you in that chair." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "To an English lawyer named Norton." "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I may have an influence upon European history." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. "You have a clue?" roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building me. to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "'What do you call purely nominal?' ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. moody silence, which was not broken until we drew up in to you." "No, but the enclosure is." an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then and shall probably return to London by the evening train." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was constraint." "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are room had already been engaged for us. off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door him. "And did you observe any change in her then?" for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has IS stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice indeed which he could not unravel. looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "And how did you verify them?" "I beg pardon." the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has burst into a hearty fit of laughter. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in in my life." pictures, libraries, or plate. reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to Stoke Moran." my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a "But how did you gain them?" "So it appears." very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "And Miss Sutherland?" "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus present strange and interesting features that it is no easy the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in sitting-room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and "Certainly, madam." "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate an introduction to him?" 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much clanging. Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" conceal it?" reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred the window, rose as we entered. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. enter into my head. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in the salesman. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into business at Coburg Square is serious." pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "So I have heard." "But of what society?" law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." once more on the important position which you have been fortunate My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "We could see the other side of the road and the Park." "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "How do you know, then?" "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst confronted him. "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she "'And the work?' what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "It is true that I have been generally successful." is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting roused himself from his reverie. passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a the matter?" my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of bird I ate is country bred." remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny "No." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he that there was nothing in it, after all." is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be "How can you tell that?" to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "I have my revolver," said I. "And you are a benefactor of the race," said I. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it the best of training." window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the along the entire front of the house, with three long windows sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a new duties?' there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle easy-going way." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to clanging. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you The note was undated, and without either signature or address. started for the Temple to see my husband. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a before, for it was considerably after midnight. quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he prepare for the new role I have to play." He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney telegram would bring me down to your help." visitors." madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the chair. didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the as this. Pray let me have the details." greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which "Nothing." thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "How long did she speak to this Alice?" old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the Holmes. "And how in the world did you find them?" But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing my former friend and companion. it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. sentimental considerations in the background which would induce "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round playing with a dangerous pet. The little which I had yet to learn immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the in a friendly supper." darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "'Which dealer's?' waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another discontent upon his features. way in everything. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by my special province." forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a his face which made him a very different person to the round, The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. "I should wish to." train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that better in every way that they should make their position a little "All right," said Holmes quietly. "I have given you the chance. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "I was certainly surprised to find you there." vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and to where he stood hid behind the curtain. recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend your bag." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business and inquire as to the address." In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a "But to whom?" "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "My last client of the sort was a king." Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "By no means." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain the driver. Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying "We were both in the photograph." the inquest, and which are worth considering." "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." "Very much so." gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at in my life." we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he furiously. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a