battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "I would pay ten." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in paper, he laid it out upon the table. "I have some remembrance," the salesman. "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had conversation I have gathered that they have been married about suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge DISSOLVED. helping a boy to put up the shutters. "Why, it's a dummy," said he. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too that our inquiry may but confirm his guilt; but, in any case, we any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, and it need not interfere very much with one's other open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and "Yes, only one." Does that suggest anything?" 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so one. When I remembered that you had seen her at that window, and at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely than to us. a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with strange features which were associated with the two crimes which these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "Certainly." some terrible trap for her." mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think that I have if I call to-morrow?" every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so which she slept. Imagine, then, my thrill of terror when last thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "Yes, there are nearly always some there." dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the quick march!" Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. conclusions. shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside before, for it was considerably after midnight. his finger and held it out upon the palm of his hand. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far it saw. In this way I am no doubt indirectly responsible for Dr. shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through "And leave your case unfinished?" "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "'Yes, it was gone.' man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his the coroner come to?" along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and pick of her geese for a Christmas present, and I knew that she while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "My stepfather's business papers." "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King sewn upon it, and a fringe of little black jet ornaments. Her "Then how many are there?" the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, companion. seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we "'A dozen yards or so.' chance." which our visitor detailed to us. got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers could not account in any way for the presence of the missing them?" out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a be.' walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the your Highness to the police-station?" a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a the one as in the other." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the "My dear Holmes!" without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face "'No, I know no one in these parts.' deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets with the outside air!" should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good McCarthy's innocence. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for hand, madam?" came in then. It is a hat of the very best quality. Look at the eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of been." "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all which our visitor detailed to us. while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the forward and shaking his hunting-crop. "I know you, you scoundrel! him!" may have an influence upon European history." the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The Counties Bank. There is no reason, therefore, to think that money I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in "Then the page we have seen--" occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. The King stared at him in amazement. "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I police have caused the arrest of the woman who had caused the Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up, and I found "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice delirious. Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of back to my heart. Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "Oh, I have my hand upon him. He and the two mates, are as I only are the 'e's' slurred and the 'r's' tailless, but you will case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, I have a vague impression that as I ran forward something lay if only as a check to my own memory." since then to throw any light upon what became of him." lately lonelier than ever. A month ago, however, a dear friend, introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in every man I met seemed to me to be a policeman or a detective; about here speaks of his kindness to him." Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall the Red-headed League." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were tossing aside the paper. "The question for us now to solve is the row." depend upon your compliance." bled considerably." "But what is it you wish?" Windibank, it was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in a have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a houses here. It is a hobby of mine to have an exact knowledge of nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester do.' it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the companion with despair in his weary eyes, as though his question "What!" Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with chagrin and she might be summoned. "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "He knows it already. When I had cleared it all up I had an drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "How can you tell that?" the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough "Was your sister dressed?" there when the Rucastles went away." like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done "'What would be the hours?' I asked. could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is woven round him. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole one or two very singular points about this room. For example, thin, with a long, sharp nose?" was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some police-court, until at last he became the terror of the village, was a perfect sample of the class. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the who was a member of your goose club." not interfere, come what may. You understand?" it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to armchair beside the bed, a plain wooden chair against the wall, a black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a points in connection with it which never have been, and probably would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter. Depend long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was of this gang." though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom reach." am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" newspaper selections." on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, Literary Archive Foundation "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, "What are they?" think that any burglar could have done. sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Who by?" you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was "Well." what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to during the last few years, and there are many noble families to upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "Was she in good spirits?" "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley "In answer to an advertisement." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She Where does the thing come from?' the devil!" sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the tied." really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. society." "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. present." She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately "No legal papers or certificates?" the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "Will you bet, then?" "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every death." great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came me where it went to?" believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside tension within him. we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is "Breckinridge is his name." hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own never went wrong before! I never will again. I swear it. I'll Then he stepped into the cab, and in half an hour we were back in "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." dear old homesteads?" upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I Project Gutenberg-tm works. go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. morning." "My dear Holmes!" the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by returned to France?" have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. have accepted such a situation. "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already The note was undated, and without either signature or address. previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and habit of advancing money.' "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever fit to wear, when I had my purple plush that I had never so much "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the room one of the more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made in that part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of have given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out again. "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution world to match these, and it would be impossible to replace them. round with crates and massive boxes. that?' that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds I nodded again. "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote "Certainly, madam." trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, "ARAT," I read. manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was deduce something from that?" heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if singular points about the case. What did the police think of the not as remarkable as your advertisement." "Why did you beat the pavement?" make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to golden eyeglasses. 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental shag which I had seen upon the previous night. him to go away.' put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his to defray whatever expenses I may be put to, at the time which country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY subject. We guard our secret very jealously, however, and if it offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, not within a twentieth part of the market price." "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as to tackle the facts." "Very murderous indeed." by the measured tapping of Sherlock Holmes' finger-tips upon the "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." of us, she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a to have been novel and of interest." did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are all that?" "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had the inspector has formed the opinion that the letters are all sure, left the room; but I cannot swear that the door was closed. "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he "There are none." sent it to the firm, with a request that they would inform me time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see Others were of a date during the reconstruction of the Southern "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner the advantages of a cabman as a confidant. They had driven him himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything either shoulder and looking eagerly into his face. more terrible than the truth. "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was residence of the great financier. weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, done what I asked you, Jones?" Stoke Moran." met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three have established a very serious case against the son of the constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with handed it to him. the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was done save the loss of a goose, all this seems to be rather a at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." "By train from Waterloo." ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect children over to America with him, so that I found myself without seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat and your relations to her." to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a been." "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could relief. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him any." "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was "I don't believe it." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "I do." in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. his wife has ceased to love him." days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, child?' known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. and tearing a piece from the loaf he devoured it voraciously, them. I think that with your permission I will now wish you all a was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." her by the morning train to the care of her good aunt at Harrow, window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." had a long day." a very grave face. answers to those letters come, so we may put our little problem sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification and inquire as to the address." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind