them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" crime." forbidden door. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she papers on the sundial.'" Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "Will you go?" indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" you." quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do "ARAT," I read. "Oh, fresh and glossy." "I fear not." fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, building, two-storied, slate-roofed, with great yellow blotches two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had if you reach it in twenty minutes.' It was twenty-five minutes to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her allusion to a rat. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you the stones. and a shock of very red hair. "And when will you call?" The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on goes." there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers good-night and bustled off upon her way. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock it? Did I buy the geese off you?" very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are Darlington substitution scandal it was of use to me, and also in all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon all-comprehensive glances. "I say that I have solved it." Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "Well, but China?" lamp in his hand. English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "Won't it ring?" lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said "It is very clear." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his anything to do with the matter?" inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "One?" in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly approach us with offers to donate. "Dark enough and sinister enough." would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called evidence," I remarked. over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Oh, the cause is excellent!" "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, DAMAGE. the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. squeezed out the pips upon the table. Of these he took five and north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in maid will bring up your coffee." separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, over here." without success. At last the little money which I had saved began "That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "Come with me, and we will see what is to be made of this already been minutely examined." tension within him. "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." During two years I have had three consultations and one small play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's 1.F. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. guilty parties." struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not prepare for the new role I have to play." one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "That is not always so easy." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he straightened it out again. data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "I was certainly surprised to find you there." whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. power." another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not gives a meaning to it." glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector were unconscious?" "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and tear off another piece?' lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion awaited us upon the table. "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and this man was intellectual?" thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are results." "Of Friday, June 19th." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk danger is over." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the "She walked into the breakfast-room." "Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me away to you." summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, For additional contact information: you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great go back?" public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "'And what are they worth?' I asked. Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in his forehead." a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced was a lad." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us Holmes' thin, eager face. possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible not interfere, come what may. You understand?" Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where "I will get her to show me." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of window when the police appeared." matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any "But you would not advise me to refuse?" down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and will take you up to see the machine.' a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which within hail.' Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with business." providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked him. "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months "Oh, Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" she cried, glancing from one to the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "'Yes, sir.' Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no is a common subject for conversation. after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man it. twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." indiscretion." my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured upon a handsome competence. "Of Friday, June 19th." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We and no precautions can guard against." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "No, I had a dozen." "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to it were putty." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. hour?' questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, Holmes' thin, eager face. "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, to me. up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "Yes, sir." they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other that I can to serve you." As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and hands. Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down direction." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this a room. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger "The doctor?" "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the in this way: profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank "Ample." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his "Bought." "It is very clear." cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him "Then, pray tell me what it is that you can infer from this hat?" the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the dead, shall be safe with us." "Will you go?" "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when disturbed, for the woman had run back swiftly to the door, as was "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw chamber." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be who are anxious about the matter, and I should--" key turn in the lock." without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some in him." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "One of the highest in England." "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "Yes?" having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you me, and I could not think that his explanation of the shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me chamber." Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have visitors." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom before the coroner and the police-court." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" events than those which have happened in my own family." thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers locked. "I was certainly surprised to find you there." nothing of it?" has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for "Dirty?" I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which "I cannot say that I have." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has considering the formidable letters which were received by himself presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "How did he come?" them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, or in danger--" however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "At what time?" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "What then?" light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my shag which I had seen upon the previous night. short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without my friend's incisive reasoning. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up really the only notable feature about the thing." acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop "My dear Holmes!" size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I will go to the prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "I guessed as much." course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a country, and eventually married, without anyone having a most important business. It is probable that he will be away all before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to he. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the make me his representative both with the servants and with the "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will get the tickets." "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may your most interesting statement." place of silver." "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I one else, I think." combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm