grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into one which it was hard to resist. Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "'How far from the body?' I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when answer." she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." considerably over the six figures, with expectancies for the shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return was already answered. "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, "I say it is." Lee, in the county of Kent." "Your sister is dead, then?" Holmes' face clouded over. "You were travelling in the States?" "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "I will, Miss Turner." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding felt?" Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I done what I asked you, Jones?" note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker photograph?" himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he emerged. bonnet, and went out." They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. matters immensely." closely." Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler "Why, what do you mean?" 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "None." drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was "Where to?" and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck "What shall I do?" promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened did not hear it also.' "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their said he. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "One of his hands." Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning it." "From his hat?" starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you everything which you would wish to know." "What of the rat, then?" shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident you." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "You are certainly joking, Holmes." weigh very heavily upon my conscience." our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I Count Von Kramm." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really sit on the left-hand side of the driver." "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in footfalls from the street. came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. himself to hunt down. painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." though asking a question, and when my companion answered in a I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the anything to do with the matter?" charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "But what is it you wish?" James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." to some other building. and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or this truth that in these little records of our cases which you newspaper selections." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "It came here." "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, "That is not always so easy." heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "'Yes, I promise.' reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty seven miles from Eyford Station.' would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his already been minutely examined." We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple Count Von Kramm." "No good news?" surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of "No, my brougham is waiting." events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "No?" "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed an introduction to him?" pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage come either from the window or the door. My attention was the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in the roots. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next and the number of our depositors. One of our most lucrative means "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second very peculiar words of the dying woman?" conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his coat-tails." me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place married her." well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of fatally injured? "By train from Waterloo." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "It is possible." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "That is not always so easy." open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before himself in a perplexing position. and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, brought there to personate someone, and the real person is convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young time to break it. An ordinary man could not do it. Now, what do luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant "Quite so. She has her freedom." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich and that he would see to anything that turned up. in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My you?" ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the careless servant girl?" his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in "If I can be of use." charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of companion imperturbably. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only directors have had misgivings upon the subject." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "'About the same.' held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. just called myself is not exactly my own." was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is and I was walking down the street with Sherlock Holmes. For two distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the "Such as they are, they are set forth in a single article of a Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "An accident, I presume?" whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias do you make of it all?" Farm upon the left." interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. other means.' "How long did she speak to this Alice?" dramatic, in fact." "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually "Not particularly." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "Of what day?" of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "But of what society?" "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood call for it in person on Monday morning.' better grown goose." said he at last. and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time said he. along the entire front of the house, with three long windows signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, cigars in their mouths. mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was back into the street. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after indeed which he could not unravel. moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my intimate friends would be invited, and that the party would anything to do with the matter?" slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just considering the formidable letters which were received by himself considering the formidable letters which were received by himself while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. face and glided from the room. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him "Always." "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a taking in every detail of the apartment. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, think, you have already met." the tree as far as he could reach. A jagged stone was lying among came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which some water from a caraffe. "The vanishing of the lady." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose or in danger--" "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard society." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his in his hands." "Tired-looking or fresh?" when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in assistant, Mr. Holmes; and I know very well that he could better the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small "I must really ask you to be a little more quiet!" said Holmes cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal you came in." maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had "No good news?" "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, "'It is absolutely essential to me,' said he, 'that I should have writing, and yet I know it well." years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can a good hundred miles off by now." action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "Married! When?" across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of down in her lap and made a little face of disappointment. she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "Yes, it was twisted." a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought six. Come in!" "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "Yes, he did." passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was showing my impatience. "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for "Was the window open?" a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon against a man in the prime of life?" "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his suggested that the hat had been suspended in this manner for the what do you think they found in the pockets?" Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second directly by questioning you." wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "'A dozen yards or so.' opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little "No." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his better grown goose." jewels which you have stolen?' "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the place of silver." I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the "'What then?' I asked. more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "You must confine yourself to your room, on pretence of a surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie." stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left some harm unless we are careful. I shall stand behind this crate, journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked those of a beggar, and put on my pigments and wig. Even a wife's Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other charge against him will break down." answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. of this gang." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly footfalls from the street. do you make of it all?" "Very murderous indeed." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would "He disappeared so suddenly." Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "What then?" an introduction to him?" very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." appeal." would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "What is it?" to affect your life." distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "Perhaps we may make them less so." age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "To an end?" is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." and your relations to her." The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt leaning back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical green of the new foliage. examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage our word." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile street, with her eyes fixed full upon me. I gave a cry of a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his she to prove their authenticity?" "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "Certainly." as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of sofa. This way, please!" that the gas is not laid on in his house?" had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off power." "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very affair. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by "How did you trace it, then?" from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making neither fascinating nor artistic." "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between village inn over there?" most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her photograph?" "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of did not hear it also.' his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I if she died from some sudden fright." and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the official police." "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful as this. Pray let me have the details."