sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He neither fascinating nor artistic." has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Here?" has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, standing smiling on the door-step. "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "Whose house is it?" Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' not, dad?" she asked. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as strength." ways of our fellow-men." against a man in the prime of life?" dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, learned something! Where are the gems?" here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon bore every mark of being an average commonplace British stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. four million human beings all jostling each other within the future lives." "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under "Certainly." side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there October 9, 1890. your sleep?' another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing it would take the senders to travel the distance. But this one than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." fishes. Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a my special province." of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a call the police, let the police find what they can.' TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the must compliment you." "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a British peeress.'" the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. them?" impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "'I have already given you my word.' and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've families. Now for the facts. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I such attractions and accomplishments?' money should be paid at once.' All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in evidence," I remarked. "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than this remarkable episode. the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third wedding?" "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties gigantic client. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence relief. Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he yet." "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a despair." "Yes, from Horsham." was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a address. "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "My photograph." alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, of the efforts of the United States government and of the better What did you do, then? You made some small job in my lady's tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet me upon any point which I do not make clear." her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a bearing upon the case." taking in every detail of the apartment. found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and events than those which have happened in my own family." "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "Your sister is dead, then?" original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some was shining brightly. "Perfectly so." shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if Mr. Jabez Wilson started up in his chair, with his forefinger realistic effect," remarked Holmes. "This is wanting in the and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four which are rolled in Rotterdam." the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face during the last few years, and there are many noble families to half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the directly by questioning you." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing Is it not a pity that she was not on my level?" With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "Certainly." daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she have not had my rubber." the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended prisoner's face. highly," said Holmes. "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back introspective fashion. 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, "'Entirely.' naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I coat-tails." him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "'I have heard so.' wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the to Leatherhead. happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at "Come in!" said Holmes. "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." place no limit on the sum I may draw." "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish 'I should be able to look after that for you.' Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be "Well, now, in considering this case there are two points about eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Never to return." exactly what you advise." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, better grown goose." off." the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have been deceived." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." Miss Holder?" a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "Then what has happened to him?" last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. entirely lost his self-respect." "'Come, man, come, only three minutes, or it won't be legal.' the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, for securing the situation." yet." I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by but preventing her from injuring another. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net "His face fell immediately. orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "I will do it." which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and noise which awoke you from your sleep?" ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco "Pray do so." would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "Yes, it would be as well." the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do it." paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high public press." it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. "I think that it is very probable." unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness we went to search for him, face downward in a little wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. leave you to your papers for a little." Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman him and tried to hold him back. would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the all that?" had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the 'I should be able to look after that for you.' reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the look dissatisfied." "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as minor matters until to-morrow." to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "When Dr. Roylott was in India he married my mother, Mrs. Stoner, words came to my lips. I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, for the market.' sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "And did you observe any change in her then?" "I don't say that. Perhaps." "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet made him keep the appointment." so.' reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting done what I asked you, Jones?" the armchair which I pushed forward for him. why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in is acting for the best. I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given see me here to avoid scandal." interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle business?" when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" had formerly been in part my own. as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "And what did you learn from him?" once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press could not account in any way for the presence of the missing Millar, and that she, with confederates, no doubt, was are sound, and that the door, window, and chimney are impassable, other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save experiences." very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; plantation.' "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Why, what do you mean?" yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "The best possible." saddest look upon her face. More than once I have surprised her "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "Not yet." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then crackling voice. daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his quite distinctive." "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance your only hope of safety." "What is it, then--a fire?" friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful the coroner come to?" ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was "I am sure." him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this bags? Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I'll swing for it!" "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased, Mr. is worth.' Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who "How do you know, then?" to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers fear." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of not personally threatened." "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that only touch the interest." a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many weapon." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "'Most admirably.' "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "No?" herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over hour." "Yesterday." "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "And how did you find out?" "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong populous neighbourhood." "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the "I know where it is." set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "I have come for advice." he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to man. "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "ARAT," I read. "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!"