arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it "'MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES:--Lord Backwater tells me that I not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are save the two whom I had followed and a surpliced clergyman, who are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg was shining brightly. Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the Lestrade looked sadly at my companion. Then he turned to me, travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland you found me to-night--and running through the front room she "Yes." my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of copied or distributed: Holmes' room. still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat his forehead." golden eyeglasses. dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." Lestrade of Scotland Yard." fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had think that he is innocent?" "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic instincts rose up against that laugh. few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "What have you done?" asked Holmes. might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature always that they were such commands as a lady might with was used.' view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in followed. all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal the so-precious time, but come!' "Never to return." "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "And is that all?" front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers. My twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even gives a meaning to it." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might garden. I lent the ostlers a hand in rubbing down their horses, he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the best detective that ever lived. certainly do as you advise." "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. "I am to be neutral?" "My own seal." something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the companion. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage "Well, to tell the truth, I saw then the first signs that I had light and attacked it." "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found prove to be little relation between the different incidents of to surprise her." staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "Precisely." "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. to 226 Gordon Square; so thither I travelled, and being fortunate assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the loudly expressed admiration of her mother. Then Mr. Angel began you?" "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in 1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable papers on the sundial.'" "When did it break out?" but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for. The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow "I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I nerves were worked up to the highest pitch of tension, and my down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't disappearance of the bride.'" before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only tail." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "Yes, the wine-cellar." grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us "In heaven's name, what for?" friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then which it had come upon my father." collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as "And sit in the dark?" train.' have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached have not much in the way of proof with which to back it up; and, Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in fait accompli?" pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief "It may not come to that," said Holmes. where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "I really have made no inquiries on the subject." Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just the stones. human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of "And now?" He raised his hand. are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn hopeless attempt at recovering them." your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "Not in the least." confide it to an agent without putting myself in his power. I weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself." caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom was not a bird to be seen there. terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement have I gained?" spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with confronted him. branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "He slept on the premises." abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was for its centre. idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and photograph?" partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City clanging. the Red-headed League." "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am the Friday. Was it to be in church?" the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "How did he come?" than to us. learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, so far?" "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and became a little more reasonable. I told him that we would give "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the lamp in his hand. "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he affair. Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in invisible to me," I remarked. Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian "No, I think that I'll take it." About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a second." You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "Oh, fresh and glossy." understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular enter Dr. Roylott's room." interest. They are important, you understand, without being "No, no. No crime," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "Only one of and it need not interfere very much with one's other To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "How many? I don't know." photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "You don't mind breaking the law?" his eyes that our smiles were turned in an instant to horror and are, I think, all that we need." inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as "The knees of his trousers." "What do you make of that, Watson?" was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. that she carried the precious coronet in her hands. She passed we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off assailants; but the man, shocked at having broken the window, and "Have you managed it?" asked Holmes. "Breckinridge is his name." believe that we shall be in time to stop it. But to-day being time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may to his chemical studies. have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass was keenly on my guard against him. the Atlantic. An important addition has been made during the last and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "In what way?" asked Holmes. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was hurried away. appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the future lives." future lives." upon the white wrist. We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short he. "Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her this man was intellectual?" unclasping of his long thin hands. "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him room. like a rabbit into its hole to develop his pictures. That is his "'Yes, sir.' "'And what are they worth?' I asked. the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "This was quite too good to lose, Watson. I was just balancing arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as whole story and, with a scream, fell down senseless on the upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. there has been an enclosure here!" edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies snoring "A client, then?" "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to in. in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman in darkness. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, her house. Once we diverted her luggage when she travelled. Twice of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder if only as a check to my own memory." rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There "It is very kind of you." his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. highly," said Holmes. from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: "That is easily got." Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until recall any case within my experience which looked at the first "My stepfather's business papers." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but new acquaintance to Baker Street. fluttered off among the others. admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, *** START: FULL LICENSE *** inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he the very morning of the wedding." "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "You have the photograph?" subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the it in the name of the firm, then in justice to my partner I must to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense this morning with the one object of seeing you and asking your entirely lost his self-respect." frequently gained my first real insight into the character of the bottom.' very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a in your London, you will know that the office of the company is passion also for Indian animals, which are sent over to him by a tied." precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "Did you become engaged then?" already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they "He said too much." I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a himself to tell his story. moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one the tragedy. very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is was shining brightly. weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that grieved. But here she comes in person to resolve our doubts." towards the blaze. not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend "But what is it you wish?" the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the States. seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the directly by questioning you." frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in violet eyes shining, her lips parted, a pink flush upon her "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily during the last few years, and there are many noble families to very peculiar words of the dying woman?" left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and business came to an end." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great We had reached Baker Street and had stopped at the door. He was "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." "Of Friday, June 19th." that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the new duties?' brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had bed dies. Does not that strike you?" "By no means." "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "Come in!" said Holmes. humiliation." gives a meaning to it." "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug "I am in hopes that she does." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a affair. "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its "What I expected to see." wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a papers on the sundial.'" he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for always the way. Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no "It is half-past ten now." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? fled together." that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing then?" Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." DISSOLVED. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they call you and give you the chance." after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the had no one to advise her at such a crisis." every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists behind me. This is what he says: home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is row." never came back." It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a "It is very clear." "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during the nursery. hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over digesting their breakfasts at home." was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled enter into my head. "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after is a common subject for conversation. stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "What! You do not mean bodies?" Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking and Mrs. Rucastle expressed a delight at the look of it, which expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose father's place of business?" had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil "Frankly, now!" she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which charged with?" "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I I took the paper from him and read as follows: "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has have established a very serious case against the son of the distinguish the words: I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, "Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite "Well, that is clear enough, certainly. But how about the face which spoke her joy. "I have been waiting so eagerly for Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." following enigmatical notices: "Here?" very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." to a more successful conclusion." really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "He disappeared so suddenly." very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" "The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy third from London." glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both wrinkled, bent with age, an opium pipe dangling down from between "You forget that I know nothing about it." It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, for the market.' the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my wedding?" last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall door?" destroyed it! You have dishonoured me forever! Where are the was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy