"Did you observe the colour?" "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." "Yes." Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a eat it." mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden system of imprisonment?" and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City "But what harm can there be in that?" card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, been." "Oh, well, he was very good about it. He laughed, I remember, and miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "The Cedars?" she used." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. Baker Street would have failed to recognise him. His face flushed shall use the carriage to-night." brain must have something in it." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If get the tickets." in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone deduce something from that?" through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't copied or distributed: exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your "No. His orders were to stay in the house." having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have however, and my father entered into possession of the estate, and begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "I do." "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES *** leave you to your papers for a little." this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public evidence," I remarked. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached into her hand at the door and which lured her within their process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I you." works. waste of energy." noise which awoke you from your sleep?" We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I residence of the great financier. for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "Quite so. She has her freedom." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him. I there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "I cannot as yet see any connection." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' many ways unique, and by hearing the very remarkable narrative of hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after should be taken.' asked. "I do not know what I have done to be so severely tried," said are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards said he. "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We past. I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." The summons was a brief and urgent one. something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the McCarthy's innocence. "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. my special province." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to "How did that help you?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" standing smiling on the door-step. as the most incisive reasoner and most energetic agent in Europe. this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a study of tattoo marks and have even contributed to the literature 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had Foundation Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly. Such a "It was a confession," I ejaculated. resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit on re-entering her father's house?" settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "He slept on the premises." however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "'And the work?' silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San into the room. "Really! You surprise me." "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "You have but to name it." little want and forestalling it if possible. He was kind to her the loss of it. not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into away in different directions, and I went off to make my own made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it writer." keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. his interest. Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, thin legs towards the fire. interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left this Miss Turner." weapon." clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, your billet.' Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I "We must have a cab." disturbance in my wife." is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should "How do you know, then?" shadow pass over his face as I spoke. returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered the very morning of the wedding." high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter read over the extraordinary announcement. hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the Pool. "And you can do nothing until then?" tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "Yes?" as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. observed. lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never make his pile, too, and never come back to claim me until he had "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of recover the gem." "Very. But will he see it?" 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, cheerful." "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them dramatic, in fact." crackling voice. the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get I leave." was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. without success. At last the little money which I had saved began revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that that was all that caught the son's ear. Now from this double "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. shadows there glimmered little red circles of light, now bright, neighbourhood, and was lying senseless, with a shattered skull. I frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who Farm upon the left." Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "Her father is very rich?" connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent the ceiling. revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian excitement. the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it Mr. Windibank," Holmes continued. "I think of writing another hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would mysterious business." thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has and inquire as to the address." girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off giving me time to thank him. "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking which we had just quitted. "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "'And the work?' Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. The note was undated, and without either signature or address. together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when over part of the map. "What do you read?" why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "But what is it you wish?" wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "At the wedding breakfast." someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There there!' "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, License. You must require such a user to return or not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for beside him, curious to learn what this new quest might be which writer." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips to-night?" I asked. know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is gone. "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a looking up at the numbers of the houses." light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." the running down." at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can of campaign. The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "'Ample.' You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "You forget that I know nothing about it." Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see me upon any point which I do not make clear." Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as opened a pocket-book and took out a note. including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "And for present expenses?" "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots threw himself down with his face to the pillow. however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer what is your own theory as to what took place?" "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you "Dirty?" "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." is now desirous of getting those letters back." connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your forehead. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on vanished into the darkness. article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "Not particularly." aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this business." instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. problems help me to do so." salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came highly," said Holmes. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about begin with, and I had not got mine yet." I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken "Indeed! Whose, then?" glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "Eh? What of it, then? Has it returned to life and flapped off second." but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town matter." careless servant girl?" Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. people in all walks of life. "No." the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six Mrs. Toller serenely. since then to throw any light upon what became of him." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the "Awake, Watson?" he asked. was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, wall." "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this "Will you bet, then?" feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, William Crowder, a game-keeper in the employ of Mr. Turner. Both know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "I warn you that they are very incomplete." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a As I entered, a sallow Malay attendant had hurried up with a pipe right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your than to us. India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "You have compromised yourself seriously." age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden "It is solved." the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside "But you would not advise me to refuse?" the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a "That is it on the dressing-table." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant spark where all is dark to me." singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. he went off to France upon the business of the firm, but we went, of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the to miss it." "What, then?" her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at gigantic client. Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you said he. 'I could not bear the disgrace. I must raise the money "No, finished." livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated lost nothing by them." and the whole place is in a blaze." trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. been able to understand it, in a very few words. "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "What, then?" general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. enough to aid us in our search." man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the "What have you done?" asked Holmes. abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to "Will you bet, then?" "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so the night.' row." "And I." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I "Was she in good spirits?" "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said was a perfect sample of the class. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either of Fenchurch Street." but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." cigars in their mouths. XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that if only as a check to my own memory." satisfaction than his words alone would imply. His eyes twinkled, James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." closing the door. request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other politicians who had been sent down from the North. fluttered off among the others. "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the in a very precise fashion."