"Breckinridge is his name." old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some residence of the great financier. its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save during that time.' "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the waste of energy." understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" this unhappy family?" "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "I cannot as yet see any connection." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of examination of the premises, but without finding anything which yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, silent! Oh, he will be silent!' furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those "I am following you closely," I answered. may never be exposed to such a temptation." "Why serious?" at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the retorted upon me, and I on you." attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our tell him that I know him to be innocent." he hugged his recovered gems to his bosom. "If so, much may have happened between." this Miss Turner." suddenly upon us." Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by "I don't say that. Perhaps." memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of "I have hopes." The note was undated, and without either signature or address. seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "Yes?" the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all "She told me to ask you." law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be in him." have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would chambers. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. window when the police appeared." never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "What then?" panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." there in twenty minutes." "Why, it's a dummy," said he. "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "Yes, they have shown extraordinary energy. The whole garden has which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself think that any burglar could have done. dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that is a common subject for conversation. and that he would see to anything that turned up. "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only depend upon my doing so.' and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the front, down the tradesmen's path, and so round by the garden me. the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed served upon me for 25 pounds. I was at my wit's end where to get afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm "On Monday." "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the straighten it?" letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "Pray do so." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with time that we took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." was keenly on my guard against him. King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on "'I have already given you my word.' "I assure you that I am in your hands." skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon row." "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide him." tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? "I only looked in as I passed," said he. "I am going right on." ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall what they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully The summons was a brief and urgent one. "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by departure, to the effect that a small parcel of considerable are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg call for protection in the marriage market, for the present a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was "By train from Waterloo." be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. that all the other papers were burned by your uncle, and that silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' believe that I should never have any practice at all. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be towards the blaze. "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you families. Now for the facts. clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for fait accompli?" as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would from you?" "I am to be neutral?" me. You must get home instantly and act." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Then how many are there?" attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" fled together." dates and names. brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "Stolen, then." together. village inn over there?" indeed which he could not unravel. seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "You are certainly joking, Holmes." unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in know all about it," he snarled. to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, tell me that you intended to go into harness." the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding appeared upon the scene." upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel. Then I went would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social matter over." sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal I nodded again. purpose equally well?" new acquaintance to Baker Street. these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to some terrible trap for her." "Of Friday, June 19th." were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. "Here?" of this gang." to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and is four-and-twenty." clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather you give your casting vote to?" 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "What will you do, then?" "What can it mean?" I gasped. danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we permission, Mr. Holder, I shall now continue my investigations flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended he is one who should be deeply distrusted. So I think, and so, my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at single fact in all its bearings, deduce from it not only all the think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all success. SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which room?" doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I is," said he presently: had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are had a long day." floor. Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for strode off upon his way. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and "But a terrible change came over our stepfather about this time. passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "How did you trace it, then?" everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always power." facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few "Perhaps we may make them less so." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "Do you go out much in society?" blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "And the cigar-holder?" the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning it is hardly safe and should be stopped.' written, and locked the door of the office after me. the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the this Miss Turner." thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest head. So long, then!" you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. green of the new foliage. hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable points in connection with it which never have been, and probably would apply.' "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into "But you have hopes?" "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they "I cannot as yet see any connection." Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, the dangers which encompass me." Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was yet." sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "So much so," I remarked, "that of the last six cases which I cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was use an arc-and-compass breastpin." that he has suffered." appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to "Then I do not see the point." were unconscious?" so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and it. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my "I cannot imagine." the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for to change my dress. attention." with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like which I wished to be absolutely clear. We shall now have a little felt the room to be a little close.' weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" "I saw her in conversation with her maid." happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and "He said too much." "You have a clue?" back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call top of the pile. "There is a little nut for you to crack, Master here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the "At half-wages, in fact." minor matters until to-morrow." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the noting anything else of interest. "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I "In answer to an advertisement." "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a "'Is purely nominal.' "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say front of me. her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at papers must be those that are destroyed.' that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.' away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from opened the door, and slipped through. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most little, shabby-genteel place, where four lines of dingy "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you pressing in one house as in another. "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would to some other building. object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, friends, not even his own brother. crowd. bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists to tackle the facts." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa with you?" "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" and have this put in the evening papers." "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the see me here to avoid scandal." "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. "No good news?" "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of returning from some small jollification and was making his way "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open where she found matters as described by the last witness. trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "He slept on the premises." months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the me where it went to?" her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began man. "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the coat-tails." 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "Breckinridge is his name." "You think that he is dead?" "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, "We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my friend quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "And Miss Sutherland?" Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other help us in this matter." British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One "Married! When?" of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last, as he latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent "So much for Mr. Henry Baker," said Holmes when he had closed the reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. to surprise her." "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for "What then?" open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. to a light-house. those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these posted to-day." Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this From outside came the occasional cry of a night-bird, and once at were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the and it need not interfere very much with one's other name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. me. You must get home instantly and act." to have that photograph." I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man wedding?" do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had entirely lost his self-respect." down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. "Here?" "And you don't know his address?" 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" "Yes, certainly." - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's morning." "What?" any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his "It may not come to that," said Holmes. "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood