the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no appointment with me for six o'clock?" heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood scattered papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you must be when I saw the door open.' for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was matter." brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first "And help." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of fuss that is made over them." someone who had been in Australia." since then to throw any light upon what became of him." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" "Yes." lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "Witness: I must still refuse. and the church but not where the lady lived." ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself your bag." "I will get her to show me." his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you she used." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of hurried away. lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. bearing upon the case." "Never." "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I started for the Temple to see my husband. "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he points to suicide?" he. introspective fashion. breakfast." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back promise me that you will not tell a human being that you are Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. arrangements." "That sounds a little paradoxical." of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came only touch the interest." minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the again on its way. met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from "Where to?" sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting to-night's adventure." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "But you can know nothing of this?" "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately call you and give you the chance." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of Serpentine Avenue. "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the subject to the trademark license, especially commercial man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key the address that was given us in the advertisement. the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four tassel actually lying upon the pillow. said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson me where it went to?" habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the hair?' other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or later, upon the night of May 2nd." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "To the police?" Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay envelope. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, "It was an hour's good drive." corner of the building. case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the "Certainly." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held husband's writing, madam." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is maid will bring up your coffee." but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it that I may have something better before very many minutes are appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual arms and began to sob in a high treble key. very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her appeared upon the scene." pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You the loss of it. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and developed." sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "'What are you doing there?' he asked. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as salesman. "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "You were travelling in the States?" Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and felt the room to be a little close.' room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope before, for it was considerably after midnight. "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could is," said he presently: "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We of the vacancies.' of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the and put his glass in his pocket. mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon noble correspondent could be. single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the ways of our fellow-men." gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be the inner apartment." moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste Pool. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. the night.' introspective fashion. "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings his huge brown hands. learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." room?" "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "To an end?" "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would long narrative. my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice were unconscious?" "Holmes, the busybody!" I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for delighted to hear it," he said. It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his "Have you it here?" "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment maid will bring up your coffee." over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "I never hope to see such a sight as that again, Mr. Holmes. From "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been gives a meaning to it." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "But his left-handedness." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose row." "Come in!" said Holmes. "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with conduct the inquiry." that he has suffered." beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock but preventing her from injuring another. Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. "Dark enough and sinister enough." precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if chemical work which was so dear to him. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never conduct the inquiry." "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after "'What, the red-headed man?' this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in detective. "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' "The vanishing of the lady." has little to do with my story." comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at off." "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east might help us?" think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated Miss Holder?" Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "It is his hat." utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue closing the door. that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "It is possible." the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "Perhaps I have." six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you question," said Holmes, smiling. this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be her also." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes "And the cigar-holder?" "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and that you saw all that I did." ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out highly," said Holmes. danger is over." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "My stepfather's business papers." adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face notes," he said. "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad pupils, all huddled in a chair, the wreck and ruin of a noble "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front closing the door. "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last the room while you explain this matter?" and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the "What!" he roared. "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. "'Quite sure, dad.' We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and your billet.' that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my "I cannot as yet see any connection." tangible cause. And now, Miss Stoner, we must leave you for if very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, time." upon an income of about 60 pounds." salesman. suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was memory. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the beg that you will break it off." "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never "Yes?" left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with conduct the inquiry." problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn "Eh? What was that?" have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "On Monday." at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have brain must have something in it." an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found yourselves in at night?" "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, think that any burglar could have done. bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and "Dr. Becher's." Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about awaited us upon the table. "'And the work?' the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "I cannot think." tightly behind him. impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked morning." "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "It is a murder, then?" "I don't believe it." heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into the best of training." misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever and shall probably return to London by the evening train." seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "Was there a secret marriage?" the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped "It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "Deserted you?" "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "Perfectly so." "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." off." gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the guilty parties." with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the