newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to the struggle and was endeavouring to straighten it when you sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "I saw her in conversation with her maid." said he. listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." asked. possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would "That is possible." paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it, and and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he answer." the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is business." paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or carried out of court." Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Witness: Nothing definite. "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking touch that coronet?' my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at row." his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew my little problems." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a "A confidential servant?" "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we "Yes, it would be as well." they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the "'Certainly not.' at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which help us in this matter." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. bearing upon the case." "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press done what I asked you, Jones?" without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position have been better. It is all right." poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now definite end. great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your foresight and the moral retrogression?" "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall, is so ill that his life is entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel "Then, as to money?" business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. and a shock of very red hair. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not "What do you mean?" the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an he is the first of criminals. He has nerve and he has knowledge. With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage to tackle the facts." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have "What is it, then--a fire?" America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "I see no marks." "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with "Then I do not see the point." "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose nor business nor anything else. There you must stay, or you lose near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "Was the window open?" of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this "Ten will be early enough." and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter thin legs towards the fire. bed dies. Does not that strike you?" interests were the same as his." snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates "I cannot as yet see any connection." was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so signal between you and your father? the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "No sign of it?" young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, remarked. idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of Have you good authority for what you say?" "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy closely." Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "Yes." sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no which our visitor detailed to us. "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, answer." "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had "Is he quiet?" Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the swimmer who leaves us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan showing my impatience. lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. immense faculties and extraordinary powers of observation in particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy together. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently If you but make such reparation as is in your power, by telling Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "I think that I had better go, Holmes." nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the to tell." "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? even of instruction." public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm seen the man in the road." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked existence." "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was a small bearded man in a grey suit, who seemed to be looking in return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone investigation into their hands at once. When the inspector and a "The murder was done with it." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he like gravel from a pit.' why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet His smile broadened. "When did it break out?" Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. giving me time to thank him. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "By all means." "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "I have a cab outside." "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the "The decline of his fortunes, then?" While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down "So I am. Very much so." "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had all-comprehensive glances. round and wave him away like that.' he. gbnewby@pglaf.org WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you that before taking the final step I should like to submit the "Peculiar--that is the very word," said Holmes. "It is not an the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are young Openshaw's." thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with details should find their way into the papers. Inspector My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name once more for Briony Lodge. time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual the King without delay." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the over his head with a sweet womanly caress. "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they the coronet in his hands?" low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "And your mother is alive?" Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No to you." my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it "Well, it is a possible supposition." "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than "On your arm?" "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled in the dead of the night?' contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" the table and went her way, with a promise to come again whenever "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "I shall most certainly do so." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his the very morning of the wedding." beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to good-night and bustled off upon her way. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to gained property under his arm. "There are a few of us who "'Stolen!' he cried. noting anything else of interest. you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. someone who had been in Australia." smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them he has been "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "An accident, I presume?" Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of row." present." chain of events which led up to it but also all the results which keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "You think so, too?" drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his "Who by?" the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do "Yes, only one." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a generous with you in money matters.' should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the went to the Alpha were town bred." as noiselessly as she had come. it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "Yes. He waved his hands." not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the was always as good as her word. I would take my goose now, and in in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss and changed my clothes. It was a delicate part which I had to starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. that you wished to speak to me?' For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "So I am. Very much so." it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "Was the window open?" "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to round with crates and massive boxes. "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his main points of my analysis." "Yes." such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" even so self-evident a thing as that." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "Yes." return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom "It's nothing of the kind." rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." clanging. the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has Chief Executive and Director it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." the house with me." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never and laid it on the table. door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. footfalls from the street. 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so with you?" where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your "Ah!" place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "No bad?" shoulder. London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of for the market.' while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he "I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor," said he, "but I "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, "I am following you closely," I answered. window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a think you a quite exceptional woman." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both souls which are so closely allied. It was a wild night. The wind thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 over with notes and figures. my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face "And the cigar-holder?" lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that