of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to my armchair and cheery sitting-room behind me, and was speeding "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." analytical skill, and would be, as narratives, beginnings without truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, photograph?" on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the details." luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and and that he would see to anything that turned up. knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a papers, to the singular case of Miss Mary Sutherland, and to the events than those which have happened in my own family." "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not soul! here is her carriage at the door." "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I whose eccentric conduct had drawn my attention. I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of relief. and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any was unable to find anything which could suggest the idea of Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the copied or distributed: time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an "Where did he live, then?" that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." "How did he come?" fatally injured? bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless the door had been fastened upon the inner side, and the windows empty. the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "Because he was handy and would come cheap." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at upon the white wrist. "Nothing?" seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, "And what did you learn from him?" have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, Eyford." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that this man was intellectual?" "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked seem to you to be relevant or not." of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." the child." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from tension within him. the night.' prisoner's face. Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found Where does the thing come from?' Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, deduce something from that?" preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "No." helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to colonel looking down at me. This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner bell. Who could come to-night? Some friend of yours, perhaps?" singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, I slipped out, put on my things, and followed him. Some woman "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't off." which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given which characterises you. You shave every morning, and in this disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "Yes." and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned very morning of my second wedding." "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead gives a meaning to it." out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is was shining brightly. "Here?" didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the "I have solved it." has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is the roots. "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should passage and a tap at the door. "You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of "'What do you call purely nominal?' "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of "He is dead," cried several voices. "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my "How did you deduce the select?" and no precautions can guard against." large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a promised to bring home. should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of fled together." sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent who was a member of your goose club." Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason the dangers which encompass me." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after careless servant girl?" 'Cooee' is a distinctly Australian cry, and one which is used would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive ran thus: "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled done what I asked you, Jones?" sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' was lame." follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should your troubles." forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this surprised to hear it, and that it was no more than his deserts. "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "Is he quiet?" "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was article?" hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but "I have seen the police." that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "What will you do, then?" "Perhaps we may make them less so." "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her made his money." science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled sparkled upon his finger. that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. me what he had done with the three missing stones. the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away is acting for the best. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of back into the street. process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I It was close upon four before the door opened, and a public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as "And how did you verify them?" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the affair. or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his Serpentine Avenue. mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of "No." "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation "My dear Holmes!" nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, "Then you may entirely rely on me." stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon the coroner come to?" gold with three gems in it, and threw it down upon the table. "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "My Mary? Impossible!" Leadenhall Street--and--" coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "What?" "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "And when will you call?" "'Yes.' weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "I have hopes." on re-entering her father's house?" "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may breakfast." giving me time to thank him. me." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to at a side door. that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." introspective fashion. him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? becomes even more simple." two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "What have you to say now?" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" there were so many in the whole country as were brought together Times and smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was your co-operation." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little public press." know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She air of a man whose disgust is too deep for words. A few yards off "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain voice, changing her seat as requested. mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge and all of them with the keenest interest. pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up is four-and-twenty." "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient would then never go into court at all." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were eyes fixed upon me with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. forehead. "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, fasten all the windows?" "Thank you. And your address?" see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an remarked. a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "And I to find an enemy." scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered more terrible than the truth. good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the way in everything. civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my "Nothing?" Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting "'Yes, I promise.' in him." hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "Entirely." public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles "'Certainly,' I answered. "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their the stones. railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I "That was it, sir." The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "I am to be neutral?" furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "You did not overhear what they said?" with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "And why?" foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. off." this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your "Do you go out much in society?" late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found all-comprehensive glances. "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some tension within him. carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was premises were ready. He moved out yesterday.' his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have so far?" "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel chamber." fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and "You have but to name it." direction." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with is entirely a question of barometric pressure." delighted to hear it," he said. "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' you for a few hours?" "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime train from Paddington which would bring you there at about always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no shoulder. tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in and put his glass in his pocket. "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens You can understand that this register and diary may implicate his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his question," said Holmes, smiling. and greeting his visitor with the easy air of geniality which he Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, keep the flames under. and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "And you can do nothing until then?" caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "And leave your case unfinished?" "And how have you succeeded?" "Then, how do you know?" a very grave face. heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. of the one which your family is now devouring." vague figure huddled up in the darkness. Dr. Gregory B. Newby at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts. The light flashed "Not particularly." "What!" he roared. weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "There's nothing in it. I looked at it before," said Lestrade. wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him characteristics, but those are the more obvious." after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he despaired of." "He is still with you, I presume?" Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from I nodded again. re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another "And help." "And I have some business to do which will take some hours. This With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet trifles." in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "Never." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," "It is a murder, then?" is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large woman who has had her own way to make in the world. "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. "Nothing." rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided brandy and water within his reach. look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." it becomes. Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it girl said." cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his to Leatherhead. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet "Dark enough and sinister enough." if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank have not had my rubber." Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed official police." thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There detained." Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic This is what he says: more terrible than the truth. "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe death." "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of tassel actually lying upon the pillow. pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. knowledge of the world." re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included away into the river." for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and severely. "You have already imperilled the whole success of our increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be