"Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that there was no need for father to know." heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, Holmes' face clouded over. merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her "'There is a drive, then?' about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which himself in a perplexing position. "What! Had he lost his wife?" in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one you." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you affection." "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so You want to know what became of those geese?" It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "He might." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, will not take me long to tell. "A fair dowry. Not more than is usual in my family." placed his cuttings. to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his pressing in one house as in another. "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a "'No, no, we should have him loitering here always. Kindly turn me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they make me his representative both with the servants and with the may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings bargain, you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I been anything against him. He had for years been known as a Sherlock Holmes hailed a four-wheeler which was passing. "In that been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, "Perhaps I have." the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it bedroom door." "Nothing." in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it mysterious business." it? Did I buy the geese off you?" the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you burst out into a roar of laughter. Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her, and then prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the think that any burglar could have done. better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred been able to understand it, in a very few words. strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My more cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourself upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight "Upon what point?" reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The were unconscious?" morning." ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in handed it to him. while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "I am still in the dark." examination of the premises, but without finding anything which equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the in him." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With "Witness: It was. to have been novel and of interest." "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of acquaintance?" who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the The King stared at him in amazement. wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." his forehead." "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "He might." but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "Have you it here?" room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "'And what are they worth?' I asked. but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination never came back." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." "That also I could fathom." This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of emerged. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right imbecility!" he cried. "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to pity, because in other respects you would really have done very do." multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "And on what day did he meet his death?" spare." comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that these papers to illustrate. Some, too, have baffled his where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a very good-night." He included us all in a sweeping bow and They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her is," said he presently: of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. she might be summoned. 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be Mary Sutherland. "Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said, the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "Why, what do you mean?" works. three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious most interesting one." "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter. went to the Alpha were town bred." seems to be almost inexplicable. Nothing could be more natural she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." even so self-evident a thing as that." my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third experiences." "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something "He said too much." was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was would apply.' Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea own family. to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "Ten will be early enough." object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson one or two very singular points about this room. For example, Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "And now?" He raised his hand. him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported "And the cigar-holder?" I am not easy in my mind about them." introspective fashion. "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that his violence of the morning before, and he dropped heavily into and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. geese which you supplied to the Alpha." difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were the very letters. But what is this written above them?' colour had been driven from his face. conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway "Yes." "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the the stones. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel scrawled upon one side. It was pierced in the brim for a your billet.' my secret was safe in his possession. bedroom door." gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater prove to be little relation between the different incidents of submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were ashen face. into her hand at the door and which lured her within their are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the newspaper selections." astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction to go into your room and bar your shutters?" We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of answered with a sidelong glance. the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to rest is familiar to you. I am much indebted to you, sir, for a reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing upon an income of about 60 pounds." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the then?" anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling help us in this matter." smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere father's young wife. leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got read over the extraordinary announcement. their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, seem to you to be relevant or not." The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "Yes." him and tried to hold him back. has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, present." starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do sit on the left-hand side of the driver." license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a that threaten you." used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. The telegram which we eventually received came late one night 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, page at http://pglaf.org "You know me, then?" "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us the poison fangs had done their work. Then I thought of the "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one examination of the premises, but without finding anything which fire. You quite follow me?" a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "Two days later this same performance was gone through under cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on "Well, but China?" violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his handed it to him. despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just you want, then?' face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the We heard the door open, a few hurried words, and then quick steps prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax conclusions. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a "But you have hopes?" He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. "Pray let us have it, for all that." he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, more human. What a shrimp it is, to be sure!" the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some tell him that I know him to be innocent." "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat come either from the window or the door. My attention was is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the yet." roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while drove away. former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a golden eyeglasses. of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so second." "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in his huge brown hands. much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot at a side door. occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My best detective that ever lived. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to really the only notable feature about the thing." "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and his finger-tips together, to listen to her story. between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was your troubles." object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a at once, for I have only half an hour." however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father "But what will you do?" But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. dead, shall be safe with us." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if appointment with me for six o'clock?" and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her remarked, "I should be better able to advise you." goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every wedding?" directors have had misgivings upon the subject." father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was "No." "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to purpose of examination. on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked with some details as to your case." who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "'Oh, no.' "I have seen the police." out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" "I don't say that. Perhaps." have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency graver issues hang from it than might at first sight appear." I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "An accident, I presume?" exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and believe. By the way, in view of recent occurrences, perhaps I isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as searched, without anything being found which could incriminate hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than must compliment you." were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been have one." "Surely it would not be difficult to find out. This is not such a your troubles." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that at my own good fortune. "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." been compelled to sell his pictures within the last few years, coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the take the flies, but not before." "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another "At the wedding breakfast." the general public were present, then?" would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding