and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was "'Look here, dad,' said he with his eyes cast down, 'can you let swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of "Terrible! She is even more affected than I." every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case the loss of it. since then to throw any light upon what became of him." his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "But he might be a bachelor." for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his "To an end?" elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "Now, then, what's the last entry?" making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but papers on the sundial.'" There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of better grown goose." cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little not within a twentieth part of the market price." upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, at a side door. his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by to-night?" I asked. man. exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the "In answer to an advertisement." green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his know what is wrong with it.' tell him that I know him to be innocent." and all of them with the keenest interest. fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been month. Yet I would rather die under my own roof than in a gaol." was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do Here is a pen. Better make it out for 4000 pounds." do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their keeping her at home and forbidding her to seek the company of It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did remarked. rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me his eyes and forehead. pedestrians. It was difficult to realise as we looked at the line "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was once more for Briony Lodge. now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the the little opening for the ventilator is." the daughter could not have been less than twenty, I can quite awaited us upon the table. arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, them present such singular features as the strange train of which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "What will you do, then?" all that?" magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of and, for all that it was a cold night, the sweat was pouring down he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. had to love. I could not bear to see the smile fade even for a Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and rat could hardly pass through." but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't late." she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of of Mr. Rucastle's." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would face and glided from the room. "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements green of the new foliage. "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. electronic works Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now or in danger--" the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out fatally injured? "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the as he folded up the epistle. street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored Eyford." away to you." into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "Of what day?" "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "In which, sir?" "My opinion is in no way altered." "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "But we can't all be." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper "'A dozen yards or so.' was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and letters?" it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven Cross for the Continent." shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not The note was undated, and without either signature or address. one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to you." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and was very kind to me in his way. When he was sober he used to be in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. Gutenberg-tm License. overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had call it cruel." "I say that I have solved it." really the only notable feature about the thing." hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "Pray be precise as to details," said he. police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of delighted to hear it," he said. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he since then to throw any light upon what became of him." In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that had done to a hundred before her, she flattered herself that she "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that events, Mr. Windibank!" well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. as it seems to me that our locus standi now is rather a companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and into the bag, and made for the door. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity particular state visit http://pglaf.org spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the tassel actually lying upon the pillow. "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the congenial hunt. "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no met her several times, became engaged to her, and have now "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father correct than the official force." "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "It goes to the housekeeper's room." from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. legal crime." which it had come upon my father." "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "Perhaps we may make them less so." rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his "Won't it ring?" are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I bill, which interests me deeply." impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "But to whom?" singular points about the case. What did the police think of the Sutherland. photograph a cabinet?" "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "You know me, then?" sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was equalled. It was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us the passage I heard the sound of voices from above. On entering There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. 1.F. accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with was the fact that his father should, according to his account, ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "Five attempts have been made. Twice burglars in my pay ransacked thought that she would have been so carried away." country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since "In the cells." "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. golden eyeglasses. Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "Which are?" help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "You think that he is dead?" "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" Again Holmes raved in the air. foot. "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that newspaper selections." cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never in his hands." "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "'Certainly,' I answered. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for was once confined in the cab my mission was practically "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down had a long day." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "No?" o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." heavy and sharp instrument." doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings "Why serious?" black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came "How many? I don't know." "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had friend's singular character. "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a Holmes' thin, eager face. "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you permission, Miss Stoner, we shall now carry our researches into "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE populous neighbourhood." Watson, but I fear that it won't do. I may be on the trail in "Yes, certainly." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric "And it is--" went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should less than 26s. 4d. chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary tell them apart.' lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I Mrs. Toller serenely. case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I rooms." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable matter, but had become a public one, since the ruined coronet was Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, which I speak. On the very first day that I was at the Copper another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa an introduction to him?" not fitted for the rearing of a child who may some day play a passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "Well." main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice now. It seems that there had been some informality about their you in your example." years back, and something on very much the same lines at Munich Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." from the missing man. They are all typewritten. In each case, not but think with some misgivings of the immense responsibility with his head terribly injured. I dropped my gun and held him in indications which might be presented by his dress or appearance. forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the success. call for it in person on Monday morning.' "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "And for present expenses?" better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I "No, thank goodness, she did not." affairs of my other clients the same secrecy which I promise to destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I man. in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. immediately behind, and yet was upon the left side. Now, how can their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this criminal. We have already had experience of such." its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more really the only notable feature about the thing." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting Gutenberg-tm License. clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a pinch of snuff. "Pray continue your very interesting statement." beam of light upon the iron safe, the door of which was ajar. it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news crowd. battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "'No, I know no one in these parts.' note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" wintry sun. Down the centre of Baker Street it had been ploughed "Will you bet, then?" "I have hopes." habits and exchange willingly the charming climate of Florida for his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have house for five minutes.' with a little management to see all that there was behind me. I "Yes, it would be as well." thousand details which I should desire to know before I decide we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller, who might "I don't say that. Perhaps." "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire secret." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand voice, changing her seat as requested. morning." "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in "I shall most certainly do so." developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name London--eastern division. Within are the very words which were "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominous. What was the whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George was no sign of any violence, and the water was but two feet deep, "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must what you were planning, for I would have told you that your pains "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "Come in!" said he. said I. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. States. friends, not even his own brother. remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. indiscretion." send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the dramatic, in fact." pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "Not in the least." to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, think, you have already met." I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that Where does the thing come from?' "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." "Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I shoulder; "he's all right." the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I 'Frisco, found that I had given him up for dead and had gone to writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." To my surprise the question provoked a burst of anger from the and the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks. to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty present." gbnewby@pglaf.org presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at and the colonel ushered me in. hope to find there? Ah! this, I suppose, is he. I trust, sir, "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who she to prove their authenticity?" back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which light and attacked it." she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door. Then smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back anything to a woman, for she would have her way." to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." wife's character?" "Ha! In Victoria! That is important." of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when "'No, I cannot!' I answered sharply. 'I have been far too "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson stretched out his long arm to turn the lamp away from himself and I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that during which he might have communicated with his friend the "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "But who is he?" We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we present." narrative." "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "No legal papers or certificates?" carried out of court." "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "No." trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. 'please.'" goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is his room. He drank a great deal of brandy and smoked very more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I shoulder. smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you "'Quite sure, dad.' the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' question. 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently arrested. You then--" through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search and I shall be with you presently." must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "Oh, in the Globe, Star, Pall Mall, St. James's, Evening News, have been better. It is all right." by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." cellar. The cellar! There was the end of this tangled clue. Then "What! Had he lost his wife?" trying to your nerves." room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in nights." "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his for the market.' shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little them?" "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "The family was at one time among the richest in England, and the "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was gigantic client. figure made even gaunter and taller by his long grey reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project "My opinion is in no way altered." "It is very clear." a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a 1.F. "Thank you for this information," said he. "May I see your father "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did