"Nothing." "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened out." he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, strength." other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate highly," said Holmes. cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out acted in my house last night?" said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my name is different." not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor away to you." "And for present expenses?" showing my impatience. never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the green of the new foliage. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said appeal." "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you tightly behind him. business came to an end." presented which may be striking and bizarre without being a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and writers could invent nothing more crude." enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with would then never go into court at all." sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until morning." Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere to Leatherhead. eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "It is very kind of you." cost them two and thirty pounds." "Absolutely?" him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. begun to whiten, even as mine has." "If I can be of use." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of the station." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp vague figure huddled up in the darkness. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the asked. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather His manner was not effusive. It seldom was; but he was glad, I him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my conclusions. ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been kindly on the shoulder. methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very acted in my house last night?" sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by nights." world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. infinite languor in his face. dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my room. to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" have established a very serious case against the son of the money should be paid at once.' "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "Very murderous indeed." union?" said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told "But you can know nothing of this?" "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then along the entire front of the house, with three long windows "To an end?" common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "He disappeared so suddenly." "Texas, I think." Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" cigar and let me expound." we went to search for him, face downward in a little "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the the thick blue cloud-wreaths spinning up from him, and a look of should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are strength of mind to control. endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one soul! here is her carriage at the door." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a astonishment. shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' ill-usage at the hands of fortune. prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had God! What an exposure! What can I do?" paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest arrested. You then--" into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. face and glided from the room. slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "From his hat?" facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black have established a very serious case against the son of the King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I distance from the station, and there we found the young lady has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. bears upon the case?" have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "Then, as to money?" overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman started for the Temple to see my husband. chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as amused." neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. "Yes, that is the Crown." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to tell him that I know him to be innocent." present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "Yes?" jewels which you have stolen?' snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "No, but the enclosure is." "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left examine." c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. the Red-headed League." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. shall use the carriage to-night." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey in. certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always records." have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I "Then I can wait in the next room." had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had never did wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad if I said Mr. Holder. keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of villagers almost as much as their master. "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend "Will you go?" the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too "Was he the only applicant?" recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will have done him. As to what you tell me of poor Mary, it goes to my to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' any more." until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed to be his most excellent offers in this fashion,' said she sharply. 'You my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told thought that she would have been so carried away." companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." you remember that our client has rather an early appointment this "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "Pray continue your narrative." "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the room?" Count Von Kramm." the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two four million human beings all jostling each other within the "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish down from London to inquire more deeply into it." hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come which should have the effect of calling the attention of the money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we "I warn you that they are very incomplete." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows to a more successful conclusion." told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done "Never." "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said door?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, closely." which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole your bag." steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was weigh very heavily upon my conscience." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his heavily into it. is rather a trite one. You will find parallel cases, if you "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of the iron safe, which he closed upon it. said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he to that open window." good for you to do.' knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and "'What are you doing there?' he asked. son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to breakfast?" that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient events occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and ways of our fellow-men." pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." politicians who had been sent down from the North. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "No more words. Get out!" lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' thought that she would have been so carried away." Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working examine." and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I colour had been driven from his face. "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. recall any case within my experience which looked at the first that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came round and wave him away like that.' "How often?" rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "'What then?' I asked. the very morning of the wedding." want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to morning." blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has purpose equally well?" and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. in darkness. interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked photograph?" hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "What, then?" cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "Was she in good spirits?" stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are relation between them, and what the object of his repeated man. "And how have you succeeded?" "Bought." upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "No, I had a dozen." chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "Yes." better in every way that they should make their position a little "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him reach." his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our boots. "I think, Watson, that you are now standing in the "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "This concluded the examination of the witness." to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as tear off another piece?' hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love some terrible trap for her." that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." 'please.'" James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a despair." home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, them?" husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning relief. affection." "No, I think that I'll take it." short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "Not in the least." "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and you." "That was it, sir." fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a but preventing her from injuring another. "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears carpenter." happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he been with you?" "Can I be of assistance?" as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I main points of my analysis." approach us with offers to donate. finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place shall not find me ungrateful." it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been furniture van. That is quite cleared up now--though, indeed, it brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "Your French gold?" of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his "My dear Holmes!" reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, answer forever. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "There is at least a presumption that the vessel in which the man He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his "Did you become engaged then?" however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." Sholtos." creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke Serpentine Avenue. in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it which I could not give. He asked for Alice. others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "I see many objections to any such theory." "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his straighten it?" "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." child?' out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the to a more successful conclusion." "Get out!" said he.