time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a Lestrade of Scotland Yard." "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "I am about to be married." roused himself from his reverie. gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "Where, then?" "What! Had he lost his wife?" glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great "And sit in the dark?" natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "Where, indeed?" so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is green of the new foliage. were new raised from a basin. "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to outside." fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the hour?' a few minutes he said that it would be all right. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see because she had spent so short a time in this country that she thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of fatally injured? The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful retorted upon me, and I on you." safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from matter." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "On the contrary, this is the right side." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; some place of shelter and let the county police know what has Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after bled considerably." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's for its centre. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of That is the only drawback which we have found to her, but we when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the his knees, staring into the fire. in a friendly supper." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, sit on the left-hand side of the driver." feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and returning from some small jollification and was making his way manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long we went to search for him, face downward in a little trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your envelope. in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, manager. is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into away into the river." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "Quite so. That was the word the man uttered, and of which his what I may call a really hard day's work." I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what death." "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a always that they were such commands as a lady might with "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some but the locality appeared to be less private than I expected. On impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, "Then, how do you know?" intimate personal affairs in this public manner." rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been "Here?" he died? order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which may be expected to take place, and many a little problem will be woman who has had her own way to make in the world. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how "'Stolen!' he cried. of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the murdered man." woman." Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." an advantage. It would be a sharp-eyed coroner, indeed, who could precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." any." slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone bonnet, and went out." "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own meant it for the best. examination of the premises, but without finding anything which quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in derbies." His remarks were suddenly cut short by a loud hubbub which broke "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "Have you her photograph?" fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" business." better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings at once, for I have only half an hour." without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my The King stared at him in amazement. were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress woman who has had her own way to make in the world. remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "If so, much may have happened between." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "Then, as to money?" of wheels and the clink of horses' hoofs. going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only "Where is it, then?" her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the beyond words. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler quickly through a disagreeable task. fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them relation between them, and what the object of his repeated the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated infinite languor in his face. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that You want to know what became of those geese?" words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at despair." however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and speckled band?" footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between question," said Holmes, smiling. like gravel from a pit.' light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt her more interesting than her little problem, which, by the way, country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "Precisely so. But how--" and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he man. I know him from the photograph." wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and my secret was safe in his possession. more terrible than the truth. to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have suspect him." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was assist you in forming an opinion." His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon in, he had on neither collar nor necktie. "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front one of them." "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the other is to the young lady's stepfather, Mr. Windibank, asking affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely nervous system is shattered. Mr. McCarthy was the only man alive which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am "This photograph!" of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "I don't say that. Perhaps." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table girl said." We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps come either from the window or the door. My attention was here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend "Deserted you?" It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "I should wish to." and effective." at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for 1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "Yes." it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "He is dead," cried several voices. that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that Behind there was nothing remarkable, save that the passage window "We have tried and failed." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, ways of our fellow-men." the little opening for the ventilator is." "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. it." "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" "But she could not love him." four million human beings all jostling each other within the as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. "On your arm?" "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how morning." window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her I nodded again. coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, woman." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "A client, then?" with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind "And I say east," said my patient. really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in "'Ample.' The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. "There is a well-known agency for governesses in the West End to one of those all-night chemical researches which he frequently Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of humiliation." "But to whom?" morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "But she will refuse." you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "Nor running a chance of arrest?" reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" questioning and rather startled gaze. "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and "'It is locked up,' I answered. the word 'band,' which was used by the poor girl, no doubt, to that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between "And how?" "What! You do not mean bodies?" "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the delirious. stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right guilty parties." hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy sparkled upon his finger. just called myself is not exactly my own." hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the sit on the left-hand side of the driver." houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, written. ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main to where he stood hid behind the curtain. description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" ran thus: who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this it were putty." photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I more solid." very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The walking." "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have without a word or a look. King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned washing it down with a long draught of water. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of last few days, and which he anoints with lime-cream. These are "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the pierced for earrings?" judicial moods. "I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into taking in every detail of the apartment. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover and put his glass in his pocket. inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My present strange and interesting features that it is no easy certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite sufficient punishment." branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with became a certainty. four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of key turn in the lock." "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door have not had my rubber." wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very her also." "The murder was done with it." trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of which are rolled in Rotterdam." were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does "You think so, too?" in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the hansom and drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be too "Thank you. We have certainly been favoured with extraordinary Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no