course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would persecution?" gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, had a long day." "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my towards the blaze. wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as assist you in forming an opinion." simple cases which are so extremely difficult." in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything when your master had gone out." One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what that I may have something better before very many minutes are come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." "What! a murderous attack?" Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "And what did you learn from him?" safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet woven round him. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered dear old homesteads?" "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, "And from a noble client?" man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an hard-headed British jury." about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." secret." Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." the Red-headed League." Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was intrusion of other matters." helping a boy to put up the shutters. of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" triumphant cloud from his cigarette. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "BALLARAT." discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which minor matters until to-morrow." here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that "A confidential servant?" staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two my face before I came to the Brixton Road. My sister asked me and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon before the coroner and the police-court." say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial shag which I had seen upon the previous night. "Your presence might be invaluable." beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was it were putty." furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Precisely." "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' own family. corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, of his shoulders. One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. of the way of danger. heavily into it. the coroner come to?" "What steps will you take?" I asked. you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the union?" ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "How on earth--" eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "But you have hopes?" "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may roused himself from his reverie. was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "'Yes, it was gone.' "There is the writing." bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "Can I be of assistance?" really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of one of the states of the Union." "Really! You surprise me." having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his cost them two and thirty pounds." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "A call for help, you thought?" "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "Stolen." room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope back alive. slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, how is to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the thin, with a long, sharp nose?" one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." me." done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. His smile broadened. Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "Pray let us have it, for all that." are, and they are waiting for us." my own person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "'Not at all. I only doubt--' better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with situation." most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that little adventures." out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Yes, only one." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my present." woman who has had her own way to make in the world. entirely lost his self-respect." of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of Chief Executive and Director with you alone." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have so.' go--none." him to go away.' job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" key turn in the lock." with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might other means.' pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his character. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in help us in this matter." such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "Not him." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable I held the little printed slip to the light. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. married her." "You will not go there first?" "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" locked. every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it wedding?" I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his enabled him to take a medical degree and went out to Calcutta, Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in good for you to do.' "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little once more to my work. nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what shoulder; "he's all right." "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "I have a cab outside." mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless the matter." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, "Proceed, then." "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while like gravel from a pit.' the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "The landlord of the Alpha." gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. is four-and-twenty." column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest annoyance, but no jest. "How are you getting on?" my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "He slept on the premises." "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check records." returned to France?" "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE "That is possible." street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of swore that no one else had been in the front room during the With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really "I am armed." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the "Holmes, the busybody!" act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still good for you to do.' Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." photograph?" that no good purpose can be served by affecting to disregard what I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to brilliant, many-pointed radiance. Ryder stood glaring with a of them has the shutters up.' "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "Nothing." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked awaited us upon the table. "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that and I shall be with you presently." "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "Yes, only one." This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "How do you know, then?" what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. daring than any effort of the imagination." the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his foresight and the moral retrogression?" the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her whether it answered to the description of any of their "Nothing." "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." was already answered. from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. that he will be back before evening." "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Perhaps we may make them less so." "I was certainly surprised to find you there." Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "'Where to?' into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Witness: I must still refuse. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." "'What do you call purely nominal?' "'And what salary do you ask?' "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." believe that I should never have any practice at all. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "'Where to?' "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything strong and stiff." not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would was a lad." pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a little trying to do so much typewriting?" "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been crackling fire, for a sharp frost had set in, and the windows intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see Their papers they mean to have, be the holder of them who it may. "You horrify me!" understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. to affect your life." at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than "In heaven's name, what for?" Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent not use it unless it is absolutely needed." the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the nice household for a young lady." since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "It is solved." a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence and your relations to her." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send Again Holmes raved in the air. opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the again." not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility upon a handsome competence. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and and all of them with the keenest interest. who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush there were so many in the whole country as were brought together "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "And I to find an enemy." great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the you." himself in a perplexing position. blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my strange features which were associated with the two crimes which process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that golden eyeglasses. way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark back into the street. But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "He brought round both hat and goose to me on Christmas morning, "How many? I don't know." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "Pray do so." "Your sister is dead, then?" upon a handsome competence. part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until impression behind it as though a window had gently closed in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and I approached. While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of him to go away.' unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about sentimental considerations in the background which would induce companion imperturbably. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and character. often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building that the gas is not laid on in his house?" bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "Thank you. And your address?" drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "Pray let us have it, for all that." gone. prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and the stones. you." upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." Stoke Moran." wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I "What will you say?" "No, finished." "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would "What?" street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend It was close upon four before the door opened, and a for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they pictures, libraries, or plate. table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very these bleak autumnal evenings." "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he