into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has taking in every detail of the apartment. which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that delirious. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective suddenly upon us." lips." remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the more solid." to Leatherhead. "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the I held the little printed slip to the light. more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm eat it." have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make his face which made him a very different person to the round, said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, you found me to-night--and running through the front room she Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a papers." breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "I cannot tell." just ask you whether you had heard it.' man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at do." "And is that all?" the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover back to my heart. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "I should wish to." "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have yards of it?' to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a intimate personal affairs in this public manner." face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "And your mother is alive?" as the one I chose?' "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the "Ten will be early enough." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "And Irene Adler?" news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "Where to?" puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside me. You must get home instantly and act." be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very roused himself from his reverie. "'And the work?' building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "Come in!" said he. great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. where she found matters as described by the last witness. that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "What office?" Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. me, and I could not think that his explanation of the ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to "So I have heard." the roots. "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "And is that all?" "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. "Bought." Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of his huge brown hands. struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "You have the photograph?" "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "Here?" position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and "But she will refuse." "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to strong and stiff." It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, Have you good authority for what you say?" husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me appeared upon the scene." concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "He is dead," cried several voices. north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in upon a handsome competence. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I have accepted such a situation. it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose plantation.' has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" photograph a cabinet?" The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm gone before you can get him to hospital." handed it to him. entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster burst out into a roar of laughter. repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as sufficient punishment." which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "What are they?" ways including including checks, online payments and credit card don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "'No, I know no one in these parts.' events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into to Leatherhead. any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, Miss Holder?" could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a "I was sure that I might rely on you." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We that you saw all that I did." the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these compunction about shooting them down." been." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no look upon these things in a different way." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put this order might lead to other ones. On the other hand, the face do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to soul! here is her carriage at the door." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie it were putty." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the felt?" greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & is entirely a question of barometric pressure." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want empty. "I cannot say that I have." "Were they all fastened this morning?" This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill the bottom.' and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people past. but preventing her from injuring another. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away his forehead." the very letters. But what is this written above them?' "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the always that they were such commands as a lady might with his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by been deceived." hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a corner of the building. During two years I have had three consultations and one small could earn 700 pounds a year--which is less than my average the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take "Absolutely none." as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. outbreak?" attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But despair." closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. to-night." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring have accepted such a situation. compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I is four-and-twenty." chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and his knees, staring into the fire. "The decline of his fortunes, then?" from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with a nurse-girl, and "Nothing?" may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. shag which I had seen upon the previous night. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Then, how do you know?" remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed "Why serious?" while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean "You have it, sir, just as it happened." these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless which represent at least a strong balance of probability. That wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly Munro.' "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that Holmes." "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that observed. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "'Oh, never mind about that, Mr. Wilson!' said Vincent Spaulding. knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, pound a week." "Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small present strange and interesting features that it is no easy with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I of this gang." "And Miss Sutherland?" hereditary King of Bohemia." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, From what you have told me I think that it is possible that the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, rushed once more on the important position which you have been fortunate o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through "And how have you succeeded?" wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of my room." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look disturbance in my wife." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either "'Quite sure, dad.' sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "Yes. He waved his hands." not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the colour had been driven from his face. could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to of Mr. Rucastle's." roused himself from his reverie. "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand an introduction to him?" "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he less than 26s. 4d. active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I fear." thirty. anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to nice household for a young lady." there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "'Ten to two.' her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and if only as a check to my own memory." "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and in the port of London." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. tied." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I held up the lantern and gazed about him. takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, death." whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door presented more singular features than that which was associated Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew detective. There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "There are three men waiting for him at the door," said Holmes. the devil!" were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "But the mystery?" "Yes, it was twisted." and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for necessary. I have already offered a reward of 1000 pounds. My somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. furiously. Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "I was afraid that you were engaged." "Nothing?" both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "Which surely he restored to their owner?" room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO the window, rose as we entered. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but confronted him. income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let habit of advancing money.' "But you would not advise me to refuse?" Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. I have it here in my museum." however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the in black frock-coat faced with silk, black waistcoat, gold Albert Lee, in the county of Kent." "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. chemical work which was so dear to him. of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "If so, much may have happened between." "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "But to whom?" address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me "You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' information in his hands the value of which he did not himself She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where chance at all." "Yes, all." "'You cannot say what it was?' affair. "I beg pardon." and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, congratulate you again." of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he "He disappeared so suddenly." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "Now, then, what's the last entry?" "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all Edgeware Road. themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he