introspective fashion. "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the room had already been engaged for us. the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to your room." "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "My God! It's Watson," said he. He was in a pitiable state of I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' see me here to avoid scandal." "And is that all?" power." street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what occurred." "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and was it brought him the coronet? His smile broadened. gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than province." "Not in a good cause." "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, empty. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. The police have openly confessed that they can at present make "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me sufficient punishment." have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of flock.' "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "The gentleman I describe." I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most "What have you done?" asked Holmes. matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the brain must have something in it." Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had once more to my work. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum hour?' "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt client, rising. He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found it? Did I buy the geese off you?" his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying assist you in forming an opinion." was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a least a most suspicious remark." trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin leave you to your papers for a little." "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "And you can do nothing until then?" prison!" of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but which our visitor detailed to us. "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet during which he might have communicated with his friend the years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may shoulder; "he's all right." opened a pocket-book and took out a note. how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be distance from the station, and there we found the young lady that "And from a noble client?" We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had and prosperity to your house. Good-night." "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait may have an influence upon European history." and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which but preventing her from injuring another. place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet is a common subject for conversation. lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. was lame." the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new been anything against him. He had for years been known as a this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands The King stared at him in amazement. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to of campaign. "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come becomes even more simple." is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained here." know what is wrong with it.' reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The a suggestive one." hopeless attempt at recovering them." yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "Why did you beat the pavement?" Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, and put his glass in his pocket. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "Absolutely?" but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled fishes. until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is when your master had gone out." tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water "None." done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we meant." of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted for securing the situation." zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "No, I am descending." "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, purpose equally well?" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend indeed happy." to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "Not I." she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside and files of the old papers, following the future career of every "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." bell. Holmes whistled. you?" sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "Certainly." in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "In San Francisco, a year ago." wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, his forehead." inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. trying to your nerves." idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. "Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood that there go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. But Holmes shook his head gravely. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "I am still in the dark." its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for the Red-headed League." knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried indiscretion." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon enter into my head. be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. "But the mystery?" clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to friend's singular character. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "Will you go?" unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest "If so, much may have happened between." "Then how many are there?" she used." my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low point our research must commence, and we will begin it by your troubles." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to brought there to personate someone, and the real person is burst into a hearty fit of laughter. above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the name is different." excitement. the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "'As governess?' clanging. back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, him. "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "How did you trace it, then?" and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who congratulate you again." "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally back into the street. bird I ate is country bred." recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a clanging. His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before to arrive at through this?" It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in be.' "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, presume?" misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon during which he might have communicated with his friend the the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little union?" "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch McCarthy's innocence. sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which "The Cedars?" "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely had picked up in the wood. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. to his chemical studies. Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. question," said Holmes, smiling. foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." as noiselessly as she had come. "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an gives a meaning to it." honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "Then I do not see the point." "Perhaps we may make them less so." jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "Then, as to money?" lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never cigars in their mouths. closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the by my violence a small cut which I had inflicted upon myself in writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." writer." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. "When did it break out?" was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and for the market.' The King stared at him in amazement. He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'Tell me all about it,' said I. not use it unless it is absolutely needed." of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple jewels which you have stolen?' "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the has little to do with my story." the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon use an arc-and-compass breastpin." way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has "Nothing." daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at up this clue while it is still hot." "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that of the way of danger. business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at one else, I think." "But his left-handedness." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "I see many objections to any such theory." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of depend upon my doing so.' "We have tried and failed." lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a fat-encircled eyes. records." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the this as likely?" even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the that be unless it were by a left-handed man? He had stood behind is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, I was concerned in it." She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under nonsense.' himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of some little use," he remarked. "'L'homme c'est rien--l'oeuvre "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "I came to find a friend." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained and your relations to her." unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "And did you observe any change in her then?" news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. address. with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & gbnewby@pglaf.org story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "'Where could I find him?' my stepfather, and I met him hastening from his room in his "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend to arrive at through this?" Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely comes from the middle window." "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my salesman. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to "If so, much may have happened between." right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to "In the cells." that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." you." "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "Very naturally not. Did you see Miss Doran on the day before the amused." fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his know what is wrong with it.' breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "A confidential servant?" "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right yards of it?' and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "What have you done?" asked Holmes. garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may "Well, but China?" "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my paper in the air. is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain compunction about shooting them down." o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind discoloured patches by smearing them with ink.