is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could of." "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert no doubt suggested to Clay's ingenious mind by the colour of his As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, outsides of the windows. Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously washing it down with a long draught of water. peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few The telegram which we eventually received came late one night and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought four million human beings all jostling each other within the "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both putting in the horse. things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "Certainly." the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when once more for Briony Lodge. my room." qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "Your reasoning is certainly plausible." through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little very old mansion. implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out "Well." cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we them present such singular features as the strange train of ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them bird of prey. some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw remarked. felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and furiously. the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. man. He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his we had got home all safe, and after that we met him--that is to window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "Was there a secret marriage?" watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a question. recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive tassel actually lying upon the pillow. breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for felt?" classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "10th. John Swain cleared. insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can even of instruction." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "And now?" I asked. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a morning." possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and knowledge of the world." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see that you saw all that I did." doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "From his hat?" husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend companion quietly. "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of disappearance of these gems?" during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than too. "And Miss Sutherland?" Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in "Why, what do you mean?" "Do you know him?" the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much asked. about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. of his shoulders. "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never any little problem which you may submit to me." in his power. note?" with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the been lifted and conveyed somewhere." 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and cause to be." astonishment. the coronet at all injured?" fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he "But what harm can there be in that?" looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most companion. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which with some details as to your case." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the joking. "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Deserted you?" had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no closing the door. roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain your room." "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. to-morrow." utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with James Windibank running at the top of his speed down the road. his face which made him a very different person to the round, system of imprisonment?" absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as door?" "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "You think so, too?" strength." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third papers diligently of late, have you not?" are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "'Ten to two.' have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her assist you in forming an opinion." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in "Never." When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the "My photograph." of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was crackling voice. overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I would and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a "Now for Mr. Breckinridge," he continued, buttoning up his coat "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I "'Tell me all about it,' said I. Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "How did that help you?" 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived Serpentine Avenue. studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must Sutherland. "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. and glanced through. name is different." III. Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this "Yes." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free "And for present expenses?" "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I which I could not give. He asked for Alice. only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away father's friends were to be there. And he said that I had nothing "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "That is it on the dressing-table." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' now. It seems that there had been some informality about their utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "Yes. He waved his hands." "'Ten to two.' the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative "What!" he roared. returning from some small jollification and was making his way name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were legal crime." came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "Texas, I think." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing nights." overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly "Won't it ring?" "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "'Not at all. I only doubt--' saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps had formerly been in part my own. father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 this truth that in these little records of our cases which you south, for the country is more deserted there." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid fear." Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well "Ha! you find it so?" "I have a cab outside." "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your gathering up what seemed to me to be dust into an envelope and some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland soul! here is her carriage at the door." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. business." nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be all-comprehensive glances. Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the "Can I be of assistance?" circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. only touch the interest." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two stalked out of the room. father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, cup of tea. corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "Yes." of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no possible that we could bring him back to her? nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes whatever might befall. good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, salesman. "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross "No good news?" bell. Holmes whistled. have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the reach." Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in weary and pale-looking. appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the "At the wedding breakfast." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "Yes." just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed bonnet, and went out." Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. works. sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if saturated with the news of the day, I tossed them all aside and and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "Pray be precise as to details," said he. heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double with her." hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire records." "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "Do you go out much in society?" He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective Clair, of Lee." gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get What do you deduce from it?" "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do gigantic client. the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, "Yes, sir." the ceiling. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Did you become engaged then?" usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform My friend smiled. "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. light and attacked it." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' dates and names. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent "Pray continue your narrative." discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases "Did your wife hear all this?" miles off. became a certainty. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe Sutherland?" dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but DISSOLVED. "But to whom?" the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. "'You doubt its value?' he asked. you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some "Proceed, then." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a the room while you explain this matter?" slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I details." the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all."