into her hand at the door and which lured her within their news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. "Yes. He waved his hands." inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in "No, I am descending." It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the did not mind you so much, as you are not connected with the Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that opened a pocket-book and took out a note. and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had some city in a dream. bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "In which, sir?" very gracious either, if, after all the trouble of wooing and "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then o'clock is it?" face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much approach us with offers to donate. "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where "I am still in the dark." name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ IS house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very "'Where could I find him?' from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I which should have the effect of calling the attention of the "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the States. could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. Serpentine Avenue. imbecility!" he cried. "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!" "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so was a loud and authoritative tap. dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the should be so warm over such a trifle." yourself as to the individuality of the man who has worn this Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." "No sign of it?" call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "On Monday." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. "At the wedding breakfast." me what he had done with the three missing stones. have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same out of this horrible affair." for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that long narrative. behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep grasp, he hurried from the room. "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a villagers almost as much as their master. photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain the date of his supposed suicide." smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country to surprise her." prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "Quite so." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the "Where to?" Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. is entirely a question of barometric pressure." down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and vault. business in the City. She little knew what. cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us thin, with a long, sharp nose?" convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and woman who has had her own way to make in the world. in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went man. politicians who had been sent down from the North. had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "What I expected to see." once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers morning." traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where had no one to advise her at such a crisis." occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far The Boscombe Pool, which is a little reed-girt sheet of water had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. works. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would be sorry for having acted so harshly." bled considerably." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press waited, all curiosity, until with another effort he braced "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "And from a noble client?" "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be "I will get her to show me." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could not within a twentieth part of the market price." vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "Yes, it was twisted." at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, "You have a clue?" far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "Our quest is practically finished. I shall call with the King "No, finished." "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the me. for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only "The Coroner: What did you understand by that? delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. for the market.' 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face pawnbroker's business at Coburg Square, near the City. It's not a several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and himself. very morning of my second wedding." his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. "Come in!" said Holmes. rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of "An enemy?" adventure of the man with the twisted lip. Well, I have no doubt "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the entirely devoid of interest." in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my "That is easily got." shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. written, and locked the door of the office after me. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." at my remark. about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute stillness, sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "Well." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family "What of the rat, then?" simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's habit of advancing money.' 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all might help us?" "On your arm?" fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," the way out I dropped my bouquet over to him, and he slipped the society." good for you to do.' caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at certainly do as you advise." bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." "'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove dead, shall be safe with us." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the money, or if he had married me and got my money settled on him, have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "You are certainly joking, Holmes." better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight seen what he had seen, and yet from his words it was evident that out." "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by learned something! Where are the gems?" "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "Pray compose yourself, sir," said Holmes, "and let me have a posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the society." the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. be sorry for having acted so harshly." "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I at my remark. side. McCarthy's innocence. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah child?' "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow once more to my work. and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we "I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "I should like to see him very much." where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was returning from some small jollification and was making his way that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same months. She came with an excellent character, however, and has ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than six. Come in!" and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me conceal it?" and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "Yes." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his upon the white wrist. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An with some details as to your case." absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "Of Friday, June 19th." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she nice household for a young lady." home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My started for the Temple to see my husband. "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss the roots. "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of the evening before, and also that there had been a strong frost "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore imbecility!" he cried. fatally injured? and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing and looked back. had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her companion quietly. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses room. "I don't say that. Perhaps." gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "That's no good." nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "I have come for advice." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his in. LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a "The Cedars?" sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "You are very kind, Mr. Holmes, but I cannot do that. I shall be should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "The landlord of the Alpha." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "Come in!" said Holmes. "'Then let me do so?' in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was indiscretion." demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and down from London to inquire more deeply into it." of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "Yes. He waved his hands." doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them narrative." lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened charged with?" learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" think you a quite exceptional woman." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon "Where to?" that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, there has been an enclosure here!" unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was she might be summoned. "One?" "My dear Holmes!" the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was "Very murderous indeed." Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with speckled band?" Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to unfailingly come upon him, and usually in some strange and over, for this is one of my clients, or I am much mistaken." return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always "And why?" "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing stood gazing at Holmes, and he at me, until the last echoes of it My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my silent! Oh, he will be silent!' precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." stream of commerce flowing in a double tide inward and outward, "Well, your own good sense will suggest what measures I took woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to shouted, 'first to Gross & Hankey's in Regent Street, and then to the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "On Monday." the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of "I cannot imagine." appointment with me for six o'clock?" vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the wait. A little over-precipitance may ruin all." idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." I retired to my room. It was no uncommon thing for him to be away in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "I would have spoken now had it not been for my dear girl. It girl said." was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the characteristics, but those are the more obvious." window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "None." assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get "You did not overhear what they said?" and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic served to weaken the effect. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think have one." shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you room had already been engaged for us. "Perhaps I have." "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then present." of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "Pray tell us what has happened to you." admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most strength in the others." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now.