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"Yes, sir." and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love "I am sure." "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. roused himself from his reverie. the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of our word." "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of "That is it on the dressing-table." generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to she has been waylaid. There has been no result." chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been became a certainty. gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The Project Gutenberg-tm works. whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" and effective." part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll noise which awoke you from your sleep?" geese which you supplied to the Alpha." agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then the driver. "'Tell me all about it,' said I. what I may call a really hard day's work." what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "You have compromised yourself seriously." erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the galvanised. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot of his shoulders. "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to prisoner's face. "Why serious?" The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or to-night." would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop your co-operation." the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on I nodded to show that I had heard. in Fresno Street, which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence congratulate you again." "What do you mean?" "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that have had none more fantastic than this." mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "She was as bright as possible--at least until after the yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I question," said Holmes, smiling. return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly "What can you not understand?" "How long did she speak to this Alice?" with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, tied." "And leave your case unfinished?" corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "ARAT," I read. "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "Her father is very rich?" business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders My friend smiled. and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." Sholtos." considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "What is it, then--a fire?" "How long did she speak to this Alice?" His smile broadened. "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It writing, and yet I know it well." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for "I beg pardon." rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a later, upon the night of May 2nd." used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "'Then if it was removed it was while you were within a dozen "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather "'Where are they all, Maggie?' I cried. gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been "Was the window open?" stepfather?" works. beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always rat could hardly pass through." hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed get her out of the way." "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband Britain is passing into the hands of our fair cousins from across hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their that you saw all that I did." helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide "Seven!" I answered. "Yes." invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." cost them two and thirty pounds." many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he controlled when she has made up her mind on a point. Of course, I again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a have been better. It is all right." "Was she in good spirits?" even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special "My last client of the sort was a king." "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my brought there to personate someone, and the real person is himself to hunt down. closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." strength of mind to control. Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging manager. "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me careless servant girl?" and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I All day I was engaged in my professional work, and it was late in "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. congenial hunt. in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. may never be exposed to such a temptation." address. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his questioning and rather startled gaze. that he will be back before evening." "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. shall not find me ungrateful." say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be it were putty." invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." main points of my analysis." when you have done it." "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think a little more before I quite committed myself. pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in in. there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady sooner or later she must fall a victim. and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to cost them two and thirty pounds." his grey eyes. nights." depend upon my doing so.' I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "It may not come to that," said Holmes. of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "What can it mean?" I gasped. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to now. It seems that there had been some informality about their effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the soul! here is her carriage at the door." affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie John Swain, of St. Augustine. the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his their heels in one direction and the loungers in the other, while Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed page at http://pglaf.org "But it has twice been burgled." cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "And I say east," said my patient. than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked "That is possible." "Thank you. Pray proceed." companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with Lord St. Simon sank into a chair and passed his hand over his "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "Witness: It was. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "But his lameness?" the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to questioning and rather startled gaze. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "Yes." "You have compromised yourself seriously." story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light girl said." ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding "I am about to be married." withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & frequently gained my first real insight into the character of being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder. The your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "I will, Miss Turner." "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project "Then the page we have seen--" that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed that he has suffered." have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between "Why did you beat the pavement?" becomes even more simple." his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, this truth that in these little records of our cases which you "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for one's self under obligations.' it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in fattened it expressly for you.' As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came Assizes. I will keep your confession, and if McCarthy is present." one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is to that open window." business?" so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, said I. through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager sake, don't!" provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "'Tell me all about it,' said I. story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too yards of it?' along the entire front of the house, with three long windows forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "Then you may be so with me." "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "Well, it is a possible supposition." the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had "I fear not." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "The murder was done with it." bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Yes, it would be as well." "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "About a month then." nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "I am to be neutral?" "How did you deduce the select?" mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. returning from some small jollification and was making his way "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when legal crime." "The knees of his trousers." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his case before our client came into the room." there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all minor matters until to-morrow." peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "Then I shall certainly come." the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, "'In my own bureau.' going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I in his hands." At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, "I was afraid that you were engaged." a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, the dangers which encompass me." walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "A client, then?" regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I becomes even more simple." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "If so, much may have happened between." conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really respectable life. I bought this estate, which chanced to be in blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a quick march!" of the vacancies.' "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would husband's writing, madam." year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be man. I know him from the photograph." when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of "Stolen." Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "10th. John Swain cleared. My friend smiled. "Yes, I have one waiting." "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair. think you a quite exceptional woman." "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's of it with the greatest attention. are windows in it, of course?" vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his in a friendly supper." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had was young, he told me, and it had left him with a weak throat, late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a the coroner come to?" to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You "A greater distance to travel." "In the cells." down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had speckled band?" the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." to you." "I am armed." not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was and the church but not where the lady lived." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation McCarthy." the devil!" nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." "I am armed." I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our "Look there!" said he. business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "I know where it is." "9th. McCauley cleared. analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know call for protection in the marriage market, for the present shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the introspective fashion. fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a that he has suffered." was shining brightly. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. "Well, some hundreds of times." "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the prisoner's face. starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do