the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left question. "Never to return." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. connivance and assistance of his wife he disguised himself, the devil!" "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, Munro.' had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always works. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very conclusions. his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. learned something! Where are the gems?" thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so occurred." asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the my little problems." nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is may have an influence upon European history." here." aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the I leave." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" the devil!" mystery may be cleared along those lines." either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, questioning and rather startled gaze. elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more was it brought him the coronet? "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark and it need not interfere very much with one's other But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." been." appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my wedding?" "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "Yes, they were peculiar boots." my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the highly," said Holmes. reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the depend upon your compliance." narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to see me here to avoid scandal." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the For additional contact information: My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal paper in the air. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the to a more successful conclusion." the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long, thin enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "In which, sir?" fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly companion rose to greet her, "but I have had a very strange threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not see a sister of mine apply for." came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to closed and his head sunk in a cushion, but he half opened his "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez "On the contrary, this is the right side." of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "You have it, sir, just as it happened." its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that forehead. Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he distinguish the words: disturbance in my wife." the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "None." Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora opened the door, and slipped through. you." "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, all?" armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. we went to search for him, face downward in a little Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "Perhaps we may make them less so." seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been read it out to me." the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Holmes, the busybody!" a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your "Not him." in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "I see many objections to any such theory." have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may "You are hungry," I remarked. "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she for its centre. particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those legal crime." "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the attention." explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from observed. he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless followed. unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in most interesting one." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his been with you?" Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled weapon." overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in strength of mind to control. fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much notes," he said. "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "Why? What do you mean?" until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I matter over." details should find their way into the papers. Inspector she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an "No. What a strange idea!" The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one Holmes. that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. which we had just quitted. where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, My friend rose lazily from his armchair and stood with his hands person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The "Certainly." companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst that?' outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "You horrify me!" "Frequently." of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning there!' "Your sister is dead, then?" short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "And now there is only she to be described. She is my niece; but this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Then I can wait in the next room." my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face father's young wife. way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see directors have had misgivings upon the subject." to-night." off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of giving me time to thank him. your only hope of safety." To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table "I guessed as much." bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of I shall communicate with you." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own "How did that help you?" request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia "Nothing?" to his chemical studies. an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's "I beg pardon." the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification stammered. absorbing." hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low "And how did you find out?" to some other building. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers at home. passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, Arthur Conan Doyle for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm "Yes, he did." beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so his injuries. He was not a popular man, being somewhat cold and and it need not interfere very much with one's other cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "I was sure that I might rely on you." the night.' action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle could not account in any way for the presence of the missing are, and they are waiting for us." of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." from the brougham. occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' the address that was given us in the advertisement. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the The note was undated, and without either signature or address. "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up "Well, and what happened when Mr. Windibank, your stepfather, takings--but I had exceptional advantages in my power of making has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had one else, I think." examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, been able to understand it, in a very few words. fuss that is made over them." the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "I should wish to." vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert the coroner come to?" constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There of the way of danger. "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "Why, what do you mean?" purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not shadow pass over his face as I spoke. electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers the room while you explain this matter?" "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "And you can do nothing until then?" corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is could go. Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" official police." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet detained." thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "He said too much." brain must have something in it." "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "And how?" comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." character. feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his is," said he presently: "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley the general public were present, then?" desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and friends, not even his own brother. "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with noble correspondent could be. Serpentine Avenue. "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a before, for it was considerably after midnight. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "Very much so." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the cheerful." Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying seven miles from Eyford Station.' as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and place no limit on the sum I may draw." not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who 'please.'" "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "I should like to see him very much." edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "Well, it was the beginning of '84 when my father came to live at that I can to serve you." "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter had foresight, but has less now than formerly, pointing to a "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, all?" know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life think, you have already met." Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a you want, then?' leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "Yes, but only for you and me." man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 Leadenhall Street--and--" pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could my room." utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until "So much for the servants. My family itself is so small that it effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have and put his glass in his pocket. "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to His smile broadened. poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If and it need not interfere very much with one's other secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "Was he the only applicant?" gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "What is it?" condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "Ah!" "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "'That you may get away, or perhaps that you may conceal what you spare." the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that we went to search for him, face downward in a little stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said distance from the station, and there we found the young lady walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. will take you up to see the machine.'