quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, there in twenty minutes." Heh?' wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from under always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "Entirely." twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in most important business. It is probable that he will be away all small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and in my life." "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an hour?' be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still in a very precise fashion." aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time Eyford." Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a take the flies, but not before." "Never to return." daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose comes from the middle window." had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was "Yes, from Horsham." you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general weighed down with some great anxiety. is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' the one as in the other." instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I III. gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be jewels which you have stolen?' of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for whereabouts. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." the room while you explain this matter?" of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the article?" pictures, libraries, or plate. reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting a room. stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored triumphant cloud from his cigarette. Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to silent! Oh, he will be silent!' "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever flock.' refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet way: little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose bell. Holmes whistled. with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his to where he stood hid behind the curtain. "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "Where, indeed?" laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "I will try. What is it?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the stammered. "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read over part of the map. "What do you read?" matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the felt the room to be a little close.' could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "But you can know nothing of this?" the evening of the tragedy that had occurred. relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "There are none." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there row." Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer been shamefully used." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he singular points about the case. What did the police think of the planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began shag which I had seen upon the previous night. could go. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and "Certainly." "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "Which surely he restored to their owner?" future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has not within a twentieth part of the market price." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote fear." careless servant girl?" week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem passage and a tap at the door. and glanced through. "Now, then, what's the last entry?" the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of "'Most admirably.' analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the recover the gem." "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "I know where it is." "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business outsides of the windows. imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not just ask you whether you had heard it.' in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "'In my own bureau.' "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. fact, we may call it conclusive." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to evidence," I remarked. "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." "10th. John Swain cleared. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two "Could he throw no light?" dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly she has been waylaid. There has been no result." treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." front of the hall door has given its name to the place. Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your crime." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, occupations.' Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together children over to America with him, so that I found myself without as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." likely to be some crony of the landlady's." of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that then?" you." voice, changing her seat as requested. defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a paper in the air. "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "And is that all?" son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" the dangers which encompass me." known to be in weak health, it seemed a fine stroke to him that "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock death." compunction about shooting them down." "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for know what is wrong with it.' only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and she used." "Nothing." can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on the time of my arrival, and I was informed by the maid that he it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "What have you done?" asked Holmes. found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "That's no good." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "Certainly, madam." "Quite so." company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is as yours." The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal row." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." now. It seems that there had been some informality about their must be when I saw the door open.' How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to friends, not even his own brother. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over Holmes' face clouded over. half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which than usual, remarking before he started that he had two important that you can jump it.' there!' "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which awkward doing business with an alias." appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and the pavement had been cleared, so there was an end to that clue. "Indeed, Doctor," said Holmes blandly. "Pray take a seat." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, the devil!" inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was me have 200 pounds?' very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "I cannot think." panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure from the brougham. his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many cup of tea. expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "No, finished." "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was off." think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it London for the present?" Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will of the way of danger. "How often?" warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One the room while you explain this matter?" firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his the matter." even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg 1.F. sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the leaning back in his chair. question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." "Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage the coronet at all injured?" foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down dead, shall be safe with us." "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at nothing of it?" "I was afraid that you were engaged." "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen had discovered him, he might still flatter himself that he was 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that was lame." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case ways including including checks, online payments and credit card willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. father's place of business?" ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking before the coroner and the police-court." "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious "Not I." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may was a lad." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he best detective that ever lived. was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and "You think so, too?" never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and most important business. It is probable that he will be away all and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' "My own seal." upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." "Why serious?" "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be would then never go into court at all." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable in this way: her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "What, then, did Peterson do?" met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be from the schoolmaster. She is what we call in England a tomboy, paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon direction." scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our as he remarks, very much against the son." there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "Upon what point?" "No?" someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not someone who had been in Australia." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the him nearly every evening." on in his house." "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival whatever might befall. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that woven round him. John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "'What would be the hours?' I asked. "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your occurred." year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the answered with a sidelong glance. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my promised to bring home. himself. in the dead of the night?' then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers to have that photograph." the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the Heh?' Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very "Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon foot. "No." "It is to him that this trophy belongs." money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly Holmes' thin, eager face. free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' to some other building. money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, questionable one." slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." success. betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "What will you do, then?" pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "By train from Waterloo." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in to-night's adventure." everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It her also." persecution?" upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in taken by Mr. Aloysius Doran. Two days later--that is, on likely to be some crony of the landlady's." massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, digesting their breakfasts at home." stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "Not him." mystery may be cleared along those lines." was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and