"It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what is a broken bell wire. Here we may take it that there is a love for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and note?" with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," fall of the stricken man. To Holmes, as I could see by his eager after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "Texas, I think." his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an "Never." ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come to go into your room and bar your shutters?" gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank main points of my analysis." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? walking." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between answer." him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable weapon." vault. or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you joking. and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place "I would give my fortune to have them back." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms such person." "We have tried and failed." "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "Stoke Moran?" said he. did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I meant it for the best. Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading habit of advancing money.' blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "I cannot imagine." comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the during the proceedings, fainted away at the conclusion and was him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the and warm-hearted in her ways, so that it was evident that with pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a letters?" "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than that I can to serve you." Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is woman who has had her own way to make in the world. served to weaken the effect. copied or distributed: remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned like gravel from a pit.' "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her your Highness to the police-station?" "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the some place of shelter and let the county police know what has indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a it." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after wife's character?" waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to believing her to be with the company. On ascertaining that his gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him "Thank you. Pray proceed." "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy is one remarkable point, however, which will no doubt strike He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and morning." belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, "Entirely." "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off go from here to the Strand." Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. "What then?" tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back subject to the trademark license, especially commercial he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest assist you in forming an opinion." fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this upon the white wrist. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had daughter with as little regard for what she might think as if she "Did you observe the colour?" inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to face. His knees were what I wished to see. You must yourself have I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black will take the first hansom, Watson and I will follow in the "And why?" of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little where we are going." "Did you observe the colour?" "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, despair." he. downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had an Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner our word." rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your weighed down with some great anxiety. "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." returned to France?" to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it derbies." side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted that he will be back before evening." I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped both be extremely obliged.' shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us carriage. It was a chestnut." "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the profited by the incident, as far as we could see, was the enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and and school companion. We soothed and comforted her by such words sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, depend upon your compliance." this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" individual and becomes the badge of a society." sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "'That would suit me very well,' said I. 'And the pay?' window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "But you have read the evidence. You have formed some conclusion? more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body occupations.' The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with pressing in one house as in another. need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning money should be paid at once.' "Look there!" said he. "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his pressing in one house as in another. address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been that?' process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying humiliation." "Very strange!" muttered Holmes, pulling at the rope. "There are brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open appeal." office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do tear off another piece?' "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" in the hope of finding them." "Dark enough and sinister enough." have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "No, finished." in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all "Absolutely?" "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the knew that some terrible mistake had occurred. I left the bird, me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the companion. laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "Your sister is dead, then?" confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was use an arc-and-compass breastpin." to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "Yes, sir. And no later than this morning. I went to my work as Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith opened a pocket-book and took out a note. but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of meant." "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made bird I ate is country bred." and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it Have you good authority for what you say?" vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "But how about Mr. Hosmer Angel? Did he make no attempt to see speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious that?' what is your own theory as to what took place?" destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem it. that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, future lives." delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "'No, I know no one in these parts.' "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. indeed happy." that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is "But his left-handedness." "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis crime." nonsense.' had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I "Oh, yes, easily." "But you can know nothing of this?" Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the had formerly been in part my own. whole matter to your consideration." What do you deduce from it?" the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all electronic works "What! Had he lost his wife?" should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me which is a household word all over the earth--one of the highest, side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to my friend's incisive reasoning. The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "These are very deep waters," said he; "pray go on with your with you alone." had no one to advise her at such a crisis." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by fire. You quite follow me?" Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next awkward doing business with an alias." "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what The events in question occurred in the early days of my consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An but preventing her from injuring another. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a "And your mother is alive?" "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some Eyford." freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and "No legal papers or certificates?" my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of "By no means." "What, then, did Peterson do?" out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." assist you in forming an opinion." hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet alternately asserted itself, and his extreme exactness and a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily "Your presence might be invaluable." suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "There is the writing." will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at the one as in the other." "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some ten days I had the money and had paid the debt. to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as weighed down with some great anxiety. of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the other since we were little children, and I know his faults as no bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "Your sister is dead, then?" double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was very morning of my second wedding." corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger second window is the one that I jumped from." recover the gem." the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical "Where is it, then?" where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "It looks newer than the other things?" "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "But I am all in the dark." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door "I see no marks." "Certainly." Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned "Very truly yours, "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," say, farther up the path than is necessary to reach the door?" "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "He was in the house about half an hour, and I could catch there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired his cane at the bell-pull. "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the prepare for the new role I have to play." "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the to his bed, and Dr. Willows says that he is a wreck and that his present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "What will you say?" "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a about. were meetings, and an engagement, which would finally secure the her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." outside, I shall be with you in five minutes." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll his wife has ceased to love him." "Witness: It was. a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story question," said Holmes, smiling. he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" nothing with him." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his arms and began to sob in a high treble key. persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But place of silver." take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a mystery may be cleared along those lines." us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and man. doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Precisely so. But how--" acquaintance?" "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "I see no marks." there is a decided draught." surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small never will be, entirely cleared up. held up the lantern and gazed about him. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell "You'll never persuade me to believe that." Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained noble correspondent could be. cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "'And the work?' such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, business at Coburg Square is serious." carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you "And the murderer?" long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly yet." hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A three fields round his house, and there he would take his not yet returned. The landlady informed me that he had left the