pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His simple cases which are so extremely difficult." you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! there were one or two details which were new to me. But the perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It that you wished to speak to me?' nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "I am about to be married." "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined his wife has ceased to love him." "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "'Certainly not.' "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately for securing the situation." Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' "Which are?" present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such hour?' "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "But your client--" very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took fire. You quite follow me?" lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be his knees, staring into the fire. address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' fashion which was peculiar to him. cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without help us in this matter." Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. later, upon the night of May 2nd." be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" crime." "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "None." presented more singular features than that which was associated Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into real bright, blazing, fiery red. Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three friend's singular character. "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my "The knees of his trousers." "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "And how did you find out?" "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and Does that suggest anything?" "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. "Yes." he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. developed." your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, "Was he the only applicant?" that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on Holmes." "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they future lives." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "Did your wife hear all this?" say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible whether it answered to the description of any of their "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. only touch the interest." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to "When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an with her." poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." electronic works saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." name is different." in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their than was visible to me." the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove that?' lost his Christmas dinner." have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Certainly." his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you green of the new foliage. these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself "What then?" gbnewby@pglaf.org of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in "I am delighted to see you," said she, pressing my hand warmly. as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in bell. Holmes whistled. go--none." "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" nights." disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to this man was intellectual?" chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be with his right hand. Holmes unlocked his strong-box and held up toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain she slowly sank and died without having recovered her "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and "None." clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." "But he might be a bachelor." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there later, upon the night of May 2nd." read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could "I have hopes." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted straighten it?" The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, me upon any point which I do not make clear." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was I have it here in my museum." at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or handed it to him. fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is of fine shops and stately business premises that they really "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "Well, it is a possible supposition." "No sign of it?" may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed girl, Miss Holder. You saw her return by the kitchen door, I They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished disappearance of these gems?" salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Who by?" therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many 1.F. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away society." these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was note?" copied or distributed: Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR noting anything else of interest. an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our tassel actually lying upon the pillow. fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though compunction about shooting them down." wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would are, and they are waiting for us." "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side out." shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "And when will you call?" for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker right, and a pile of crumpled morning papers, evidently newly us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in ways including including checks, online payments and credit card disturbance in my wife." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon himself. would then never go into court at all." the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his the room while you explain this matter?" Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "'In my own bureau.' street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other "On Monday." "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, think that any burglar could have done. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of could gather together that I was able to avert another public six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing be sorry for having acted so harshly." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "'And the work?' why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I Watson," he said cordially. "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was is so. I know all about McCarthy." the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a "I am to be neutral?" the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. is," said he presently: and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "Precisely." voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in someone who had been in Australia." "My private note-paper." This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its the house with me." an ending, while others have been but partially cleared up, and for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded there is a decided draught." The note was undated, and without either signature or address. quickly through a disagreeable task. what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully stepfather has offered no opposition to the match, and we are to could gather together that I was able to avert another public leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation astonishment. clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was felt?" occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if all?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "You are hungry," I remarked. deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the recall any case within my experience which looked at the first them?" you?" into the bag, and made for the door. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. off." have not had my rubber." a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "I have solved it." in the hope of finding them." lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." "Tired-looking or fresh?" companion imperturbably. "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in lumber-room." array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but my secret was safe in his possession. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I with you alone." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the and searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "None. Neville wrote those words." "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we "But we can't all be." perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray me." by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he the room while you explain this matter?" got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "That also I could fathom." means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure said he at last. I held the little printed slip to the light. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy,