them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and dead, shall be safe with us." in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to British peeress.'" to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for "How are you getting on?" customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. other means.' it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly do.' Sutherland. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, standing smiling on the door-step. about Miss Adler, to say nothing of half a dozen other people in case before our client came into the room." "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, and the whole place is in a blaze." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' McCarthy." Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post breakfast." chair. you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his "I cannot tell." British peeress.'" Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or interests were the same as his." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a one of the states of the Union." of his shoulders. "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "'Certainly not. But why?' suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." forehead. that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of events, Mr. Windibank!" however, when I heard a hideous outcry behind me, which caused me villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "How did you deduce the select?" I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. gentleman's clothes. "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can "The knees of his trousers." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." "That is unusual in a young girl." Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." to smoke. She left her room, therefore, and came into mine, where much annoyance upon her face that I could not help suspecting large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or "Have you her photograph?" pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to corridor. Twice he struck at the chamber door without any reply the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round Sutherland. credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to the child." Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "It certainly sounds feasible." metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. troubles have been weighing upon his mind. about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was companion. clang of the bell. "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with a good hundred miles off by now." roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, the salesman. "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was been shamefully used." them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not blinds had not been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay "Where did he live, then?" dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "It surprised me." in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. "My opinion is in no way altered." "To ruin me." which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. "Now, then, what's the last entry?" landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting in the great returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to vanished into the darkness. in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: written. in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out highly," said Holmes. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "Indeed! Whose, then?" beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious nothing of it?" "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ plantation.' was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy simple the explanation may be of an affair which at first sight a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" was not a bird to be seen there. the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing she to prove their authenticity?" should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "But you have hopes?" the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "Eh? What was that?" old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and bird of prey. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. spark where all is dark to me." instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I door?" Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, easy-going way." your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "From Hatherley Farm-house to the Boscombe Pool is a quarter of a over with notes and figures. was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made happened." "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George guilty one." red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, hardly wander." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting her also." to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought knew that he had not retired to rest, for my sister was troubled will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white been shamefully used." charge against him will break down." "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim it. last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "Has he come with you to-night?" character. to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and considering the formidable letters which were received by himself have accepted such a situation. "What can it mean?" I gasped. "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was visitors." I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' "How long did she speak to this Alice?" forecastle of an emigrant ship. "A call for help, you thought?" Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the the iron safe, which he closed upon it. and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came himself in a perplexing position. "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward "You think that he is dead?" is so. I know all about McCarthy." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "It is solved." chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, sentimental considerations in the background which would induce this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman "Yes." them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that following enigmatical notices: he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, his face. their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, desired to be led to the court-yard, from which we all followed human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was place no limit on the sum I may draw." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "I am all attention, madam." refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere "So I am. Very much so." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she long narrative. "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about right! Sit down and let us talk it over." round with crates and massive boxes. every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street. the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have in the evening than in the daylight, for he said that he hated to his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "Ah!" said he, laying down his cup, "I feared as much. How was it while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already drawing-room, followed by the King and myself. The furniture was We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I go from here to the Strand." waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a lost nothing by them." his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing have had none more fantastic than this." someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout "'What do you call purely nominal?' paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a desk. end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah tied." "What! You do not mean bodies?" "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange the day and to come right away with me. He was very willing to extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I doubt if ever he set foot in the town. He had a garden and two or be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out have one." his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge What do you deduce from it?" Ha, ha! What have we here? Tiptoes! tiptoes! Square, too, quite pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up "We must have a cab." my friend's incisive reasoning. come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." retorted upon me, and I on you." and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his "You are all wrong." full face of a very lovely woman. It was not a photograph but an prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand in my life." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking gone. "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to that you can jump it.' read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since "Precisely so. But how--" have accepted such a situation. Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It room?" has little to do with my story." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the been anything against him. He had for years been known as a you." she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend in his power. third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross James Windibank. Voilà tout!" "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal words came to my lips. "You have but to name it." dash it all!' said he, 'I've let them go at six hundred for the glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "We have had the pleasure of making the doctor's acquaintance," "Very much so." lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for right! Sit down and let us talk it over." asked. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you less than 26s. 4d. "Pray do so." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a writing, and yet I know it well." some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little Holmes' thin, eager face. besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must the bottom.' "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We because she had spent so short a time in this country that she "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "Then I am your man." took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "I say it is." of campaign. his wife has ceased to love him." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Your French gold?" nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "I shall most certainly do so." called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new them?" was a lad." it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "No." hour?' "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his to-night's adventure." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the conduct the inquiry." "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, enter into my head. that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to shoulder; "he's all right." "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at unprofitable." "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" endeavoured, after the fashion of my companion, to read the his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going in the most complete manner one of the most determined attempts and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' to a more successful conclusion." right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she your room." light and attacked it." your only hope of safety." written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, with a weariness and lethargy which was even more painful than