"But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying "Well, it is a possible supposition." rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. was already answered. bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement there were one or two details which were new to me. But the twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "Certainly." volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close asked. and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime, and he "And what then?" "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was in the hope of finding them." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "And what then?" floor. branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we her also." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "Not particularly." friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to helping a boy to put up the shutters. business in the City. She little knew what. "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." trifles." is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to "What! You do not mean bodies?" "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. because she had spent so short a time in this country that she cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon clanging. solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much his face. street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with in one or two places in England?' the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. Our visitor staggered to his feet and clutched the mantelpiece was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a it off, therefore, to fulfil the ultimate destiny of a goose, test if we have an answer to our advertisement." morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction fire. You quite follow me?" and your relations to her." "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best geese which you supplied to the Alpha." James Windibank. Voilà tout!" works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the brain must have something in it." The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his "By all means." "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at "His face fell immediately. the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. the one as in the other." in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what to-night." him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and fasten all the windows?" "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but a monotonous occupation." standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite The note was undated, and without either signature or address. was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if obstinate." purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "It is to him that this trophy belongs." sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his standing smiling on the door-step. really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. indeed happy." questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank your room." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This 11:15.' retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. examine." poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "But you have hopes?" that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize Gutenberg-tm License. "That is easily got." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. it means?" this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary "You think that he is dead?" matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a into her hand at the door and which lured her within their the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no the stable lane now." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "But the mystery?" heavily into it. "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will has to be taken to quench what might grow to be an immense on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence "'Very good.' afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. Gutenberg-tm License. just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" threats. This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you as he remarks, very much against the son." "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were "No, thank goodness, she did not." the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. sit on the left-hand side of the driver." seem to you to be relevant or not." "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Stoke Moran." was used.' the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the License. You must require such a user to return or question you as to those details which seem to me to be most them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "Perhaps I have." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been fuss that is made over them." large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and papers on the sundial.'" who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a "And now?" He raised his hand. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I chill to my heart. your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. "Then the page we have seen--" may never be exposed to such a temptation." formed some opinion?" "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey before the coroner and the police-court." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the you for a few hours?" he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the and the colonel ushered me in. "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with "An accident, I presume?" the one as in the other." that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so Henry Baker is a member." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense the warnings." hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled "Yes." "Yes, only one." "I cannot tell." "Here?" trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and unkempt, staring out at me. "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, baits. In the larger and older jewels every facet may stand for a strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "9th. McCauley cleared. Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the derbies." Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "It is very kind of you." "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in companion. return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was "That you are never beaten." absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love ordinary clothes on?" dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded Lestrade of Scotland Yard." was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so "The landlord of the Alpha." silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most another, that even he to whom of all others I have a right to a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. tapping his fingers upon the table. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "What then?" beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Yes?" "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of for its centre. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you sake, don't!" about here speaks of his kindness to him." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could For additional contact information: arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "'Certainly not. But why?' locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "Pray tell us what has happened to you." glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "That sounds a little paradoxical." of fine shops and stately business premises that they really cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' I am inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, there when the Rucastles went away." "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard I nodded to show that I had heard. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to and put his glass in his pocket. serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite "That sounds a little paradoxical." my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, "And leave your case unfinished?" the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent upon the shelf for the interim." going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." what these perils are?" her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and ready to-morrow?' "Yes." upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand to arrive at through this?" "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said http://gutenberg.net/license). "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see "None." the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith that he has suffered." ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have wedding?" discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "On the contrary, this is the right side." arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all "It certainly sounds feasible." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an before the coroner and the police-court." me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a father's young wife. a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "Did you observe the colour?" finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was call the police, let the police find what they can.' "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "No good news?" It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I Holmes. "Have you an order to see him in prison?" India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, strange features which were associated with the two crimes which go from here to the Strand." have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation least a fellow-countryman. very peculiar words of the dying woman?" A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts towards the blaze. his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as shoulder; "he's all right." take the basket-chair. This is my friend and colleague, Dr. Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and over with notes and figures. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still and inquire as to the address." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as Street. one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the excitement. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it meant it for the best. "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is "So I am. Very much so." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has "No." I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "To an English lawyer named Norton." nothing with him." The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the "My Mary? Impossible!" finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a be. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "I am to be neutral?" are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project a good hundred miles off by now." our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had walking." the coroner come to?" near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." business matters.' it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "Frequently." not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, of the vacancies.' white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can his eyes and forehead. seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the But Holmes shook his head gravely. forbidden door. opening for you. Good-day to you, Miss Hunter.' She struck a gong I have it here in my museum." say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father shall not find me ungrateful." "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting in this note: foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "What, then, did Peterson do?" to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would