lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for place of silver." the bed, and you in that chair." think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come nothing with him." bled considerably." Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my nothing of it?" heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that Holmes' thin, eager face. "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more was shining brightly. sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in my room." tear off another piece?' essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning "'You doubt its value?' he asked. people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a your Highness to the police-station?" "And who could it be who was her confederate? A lover evidently, wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. Pancras Hotel. Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there were I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by we drive to Baker Street we shall just be in time for breakfast." more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "She told me to ask you." receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "I would pay ten." building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains arms and began to sob in a high treble key. mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my him, that man would not have given me such complete information "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." client, rising. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him leave you to your papers for a little." at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of so.' yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best lectures into a series of tales." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still "We have tried and failed." Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch there were so many in the whole country as were brought together poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, better grown goose." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has roused himself from his reverie. imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," with the outside air!" "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "By train from Waterloo." on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him "This concluded the examination of the witness." Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "It was a confession," I ejaculated. records." the driver. I. "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. "But not more so than I to find you." so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming "And you don't know his address?" Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced the loss of it. all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." "No." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying The police have openly confessed that they can at present make Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I if only as a check to my own memory." Lee, in the county of Kent." "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his my special province." young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his forehead. Doctor, of the paper and the date." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss Sutherland?" very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe that he will be back before evening." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" the station." which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at on in his house." by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom depend upon my doing so.' shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as Holmes rather sternly. "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when completely overtopped every other consideration that we both "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not nonsense.' sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have had formerly been in part my own. and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "I assure you that I am in your hands." them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a "She walked into the breakfast-room." Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." gone. the nursery. "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, "Certainly." eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, there is a decided draught." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "'I have heard so.' glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "Dr. Becher's." "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great at all. A door which faced that which led into the quarters of met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, "At half-wages, in fact." to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a to-night?' gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A promised to bring home. prisoner's face. "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, situation." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old "Pray tell us what has happened to you." I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "Very truly yours, should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: Countess of Morcar's?" eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it and when a clever man turns his brains to crime it is the worst the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His "I cannot imagine." "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, that you saw all that I did." his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. about. "The gentleman I describe." seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as goes." was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news empty. 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' bore every mark of being an average commonplace British frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "A call for help, you thought?" widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was once more to my work. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord already been minutely examined." "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered becomes even more simple." but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we if I call to-morrow?" "Entirely." that I may have something better before very many minutes are general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but yards of it?' form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm was feeling which was the fattest.' impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "Yes, all." actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with "Well?" "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by rose-bushes. sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "How did you trace it, then?" revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us set it right ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "My dear Holmes!" was used.' is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty fact, we may call it conclusive." "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never answered with a sidelong glance. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident use an arc-and-compass breastpin." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I will he say when he returns?" We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! which we had just quitted. what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I drawing your inferences." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had introspective fashion. "Ample." the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have girl said." Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while beyond words. The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "She will not sell." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "Yes, they were peculiar boots." her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until where, by his professional skill and his force of character, he which it had come upon my father." finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was gone. not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one noting anything else of interest. "Did you observe the colour?" "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in may never be exposed to such a temptation." "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," "'No, I have not. It must be those wretched gipsies in the "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." retorted upon me, and I on you." where we are going." breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "So it appears." in a very precise fashion." "That is well. The letter which I hold in my hand is from Lord observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been seem to you to be relevant or not." man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the have established a very serious case against the son of the and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so "What! You do not mean bodies?" protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to business came to an end." Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination occurred." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and quick march!" but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the now. It seems that there had been some informality about their "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I "Pray let us have it, for all that." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, the one as in the other." right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. was a lad." "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some flock.' wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "Not I." rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "Very well, sir. And this stone?" "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad