"At half-wages, in fact." covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "No." evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "But what harm can there be in that?" Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which information in his hands the value of which he did not himself heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the was keenly on my guard against him. look upon these things in a different way." what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" gone. "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting call for it in person on Monday morning.' and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my fear." "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "He might." casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "'Where could I find him?' year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, her also." It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence or other trace. But how on earth--" room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and been deceived." Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk you?" "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just characteristics, but those are the more obvious." yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this long narrative. was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that "So I heard. You have him here?" "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. security.' into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain acquaintance?" "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. or in danger--" ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon "And for present expenses?" "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER strong reason behind." "My Mary? Impossible!" whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "Why, what do you mean?" existence." "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." nonsense.' you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "No, but the enclosure is." object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of during the last few years, and there are many noble families to Lestrade of Scotland Yard." pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see straightened it out again. surmise than on that absolute logical proof which was so dear to "Quite so. She has her freedom." lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS DAMAGE. his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have politicians who had been sent down from the North. "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he presented which may be striking and bizarre without being "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you to take care of herself." "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no dead, shall be safe with us." "What can you not understand?" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I is now desirous of getting those letters back." "The Coroner: What do you mean? wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for that you saw all that I did." He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, father's young wife. obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it "But how?" "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in learned something! Where are the gems?" the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout with some details as to your case." and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "'Gone to the dealer's, Jem.' sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply so.' weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," bill, which interests me deeply." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' in his hands." be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It client, rising. the loafing men at the corner dashed forward to open the door in three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a I placed my revolver, cocked, upon the top of the wooden case little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand will not take me long to tell. comes from the middle window." a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question." But Holmes shook his head gravely. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. out." "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there quietly, sir, the three of us; and we keep a roof over our heads "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a "I assured him that I was not offended. 'By the way,' said I, the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle "It must be recovered." than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a and prosperity to your house. Good-night." it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of papers." his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next companion. "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding direction." "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him that there was nothing in it, after all." bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and I leave." "What steps will you take?" I asked. "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall "I have seen the police." "I will, Miss Turner." with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when "What, then, did Peterson do?" call the police, let the police find what they can.' "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence looking up at the numbers of the houses." maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his weapon." indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during away in different directions, and I went off to make my own been lifted and conveyed somewhere." been." moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of yet." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "I am about to be married." "Has he come with you to-night?" "'And the work?' emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may other means.' some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a there was no need for father to know." afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' have I gained?" through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do of them has the shutters up.' "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some go from here to the Strand." Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to "'Is 4 pounds a week.' very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "Certainly." a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your morning." low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the "A thing like a cleaver," said he. heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know fishes. "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one from the brougham. afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being singular points about the case. What did the police think of the was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any from you?" developed." laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy "'As governess?' together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently "What I expected to see." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke infinite languor in his face. my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "We were both in the photograph." I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily were new raised from a basin. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a father's place of business?" the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "He said that you could solve anything." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am hard-headed British jury." evidence," I remarked. away in different directions, and I went off to make my own 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "I cannot tell." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" lips." state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. felt the room to be a little close.' "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he second." be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "'And the work?' turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened where Mr. Fordham shows you.' very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the ago." "Ha! you find it so?" the ceiling. dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black is now desirous of getting those letters back." We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so side. then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the lost nothing by them." "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave directors have had misgivings upon the subject." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at Farm upon the left." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their one which it was hard to resist. it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "Stolen." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I the coronet at all injured?" "And that is--" tightly behind him. Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you hopeless attempt at recovering them." loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed might help us?" tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to himself. "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. "You are not very vulnerable from above," Holmes remarked as he admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the went to the Alpha were town bred." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "They are typewritten," I remarked. form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his of Mr. Rucastle's." "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk The King stared at him in amazement. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest hair?' laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I DISSOLVED. any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "Entirely." don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "What steps will you take?" I asked. relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door Again Holmes raved in the air. one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from affair. to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "Yes." ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the "I have hopes." abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "I have my revolver," said I. It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the despair." "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, train.' with you?" balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and little trying to do so much typewriting?" "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was "Witness: It was. "'In my own bureau.' ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with details should find their way into the papers. Inspector hard-headed British jury." the station." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, "It's nothing of the kind." We had the carriage to ourselves save for an immense litter of helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, during which he might have communicated with his friend the vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. "I will try. What is it?" flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he problems help me to do so." "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than fact, we may call it conclusive." inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, for securing the situation." to that open window." was the fact that his father should, according to his account, other lovers by making love himself." "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. the window, rose as we entered. but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to "'What do you call purely nominal?' appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "Precisely so. But how--" Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at minor matters until to-morrow." in the port of London." His smile broadened. keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the without success. At last the little money which I had saved began conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "I will not look." "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment American. Then who could this American be, and why should he "No good news?" twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Yes, that is the Crown." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up," said At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "Get out!" said he. "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so "What of the rat, then?" "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We in your London, you will know that the office of the company is "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." pound a week." the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to my little problems." "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face