stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the quickly through a disagreeable task. he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a hair, and an appropriate dress, I took my station in the business "What I expected to see." "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "And why?" "Ample." dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that Westhouse & Marbank, of Fenchurch Street, to say that the observe. She had small round, hanging gold earrings, and a and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up chamber." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, fat-encircled eyes. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "I will do it." "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the heels, with the cocked pistol in my hand. friends, not even his own brother. deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage "They are typewritten," I remarked. rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, from the major, imploring me to come at once. My father had her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his "Witness: It was. the window, rose as we entered. "I shall be delighted." in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "It goes to the housekeeper's room." did not hear it also.' Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste "Have you her photograph?" have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper instincts are. I know that he has done no harm and that you will much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that wedding?" the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "What do you think that this unfortunate lady died of, then?" him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling "I cannot imagine." who had known dad in the old days in Victoria." said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." salesman. sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It suddenly upon us." blinked up at him in some surprise, and perhaps just a little shadow pass over his face as I spoke. has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper, which main points of my analysis." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and visitors had left us, "because it serves to show very clearly how "I see no marks." such attractions and accomplishments?' "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as "Not particularly." tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, "But she will refuse." but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real something had happened. Do you think that I would respond to such to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven had been talking, and he rose from his chair now with a cold returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to my friend's incisive reasoning. that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and "He slept on the premises." bouquet, of her resort to her confidential maid, and of her very "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. "Nothing." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not in. merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. pound a week." should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of "Then pray send him home in it. You may safely trust him, for he He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in without observing him. A shock of orange hair, a pale face repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but charge against him will break down." male relatives. And now, Doctor, we can do nothing until the Eyford." "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he instincts rose up against that laugh. suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself mysterious end." as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. works. See paragraph 1.E below. them at his wife, which, you will allow, is not an action likely Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further Cross for the Continent." cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the shoulder. "How do you know, then?" in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help "How are you getting on?" ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most The events in question occurred in the early days of my me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s. Every day, from return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my have no doubt, roasting at this moment in front of Peterson's Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "An enemy?" into the room. From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "Holmes, the busybody!" the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do key turn in the lock." stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS made his money." house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through This is what he says: "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "Dr. Becher's." said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "I am armed." everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the in the neighbourhood of his wardrobe. And pray what did you hope have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must over with notes and figures. and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life never to learn it at all." there is a decided draught." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "A client, then?" get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, I. "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of there has been an enclosure here!" something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window respectable self." forbidden door. away to you." "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. see, Watson, our little deductions have suddenly assumed a much my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "TO THE RED-HEADED LEAGUE: On account of the bequest of the late unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of call the police, let the police find what they can.' Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: rumour is correct, very shortly take place, between Lord Robert anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite at my own good fortune. sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been there are men, so that the trustees are at their wits' end what mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a in the hope of finding them." "But we can't all be." "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." some city in a dream. the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a detained." deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to Never in my life have I seen such a sight. The man's face peeled "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are have an American origin." moral retrogression, which, when taken with the decline of his "I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said Holmes, "for and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently case before our client came into the room." in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no was shining brightly. at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was she has been waylaid. There has been no result." a comical pomposity of manner he bowed solemnly to both of us and adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story nothing with him." admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "I confess that I still share my uncle's perplexity." "About a month then." "On Monday." "What can you not understand?" stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent "My stepfather's business papers." next day. though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in compunction about shooting them down." my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased gave a little cry of satisfaction. "This is indeed important," yet." temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me had no one to advise her at such a crisis." surprised at his own arrest, or feigned indignation at it, I endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, papers." hopeless attempt at recovering them." "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance upon the vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned upon the white wrist. asked with his eyes open. 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he "You don't mind breaking the law?" was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the Literary Archive Foundation "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "Thank you," said my patient, "but I have felt another man since brought there to personate someone, and the real person is the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, "Well." this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium the day which had been fixed for the wedding, the terrible event direct line to the station. The bridge, no doubt, was too upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for clanging. seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send coroner's jury." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no DISSOLVED. jowl, black muzzle, and huge projecting bones. It walked slowly branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." only touch the interest." husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the having closed the door and bowed her into an armchair, he looked "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, "'What then?' I asked. I nodded again. brandy and water within his reach. "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her IS "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend "When did she vanish, then?" might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean full of a dense tobacco haze, but nothing remained of the heap of its extreme limits, and yet the result is, it must be confessed, something of him before." someone who had been in Australia." a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to felt the room to be a little close.' 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental looking up at the numbers of the houses." re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he to a more successful conclusion." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which "It is half-past ten now." hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel "What then?" his face. from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, the devil!" not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "Why serious?" "'It is also my custom,' said he, smiling in the most pleasant was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. envelope. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out she has been waylaid. There has been no result." photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. these disreputable clothes off and return to my highly "Witness: Nothing definite. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even which we had just quitted. salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All earnestly at the ladies who entered. As I came in he gave quite a observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." certainly do as you advise." the roots. fishes. younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, again before evening." taking in every detail of the apartment. "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." until night should bring an explanation. process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning examination of the premises, but without finding anything which window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every ourselves in the office." could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of directors, with the result that you have seen." row." was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible was used.' company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on meant it for the best. furiously. attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns we went to search for him, face downward in a little "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they when the maid, at Holmes' request, showed us the boots which her "And how in the world did you find them?" Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in window, and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and "Then what has happened to him?" collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic am unable to follow you. For example, how did you deduce that to-morrow." prove to be an interesting case, you would, I am sure, wish to a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I I would give it all to know what has become of Mr. Hosmer Angel." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on gone before you can get him to hospital." very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded crowd. entirely devoid of interest." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He man. office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to "That is it on the dressing-table." quite drunk, and yet Mr. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. dwell upon it further. Above all, try to let Mr. Hosmer Angel destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "Imitated." to-night's adventure." might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "How did that help you?" I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the I held the little printed slip to the light. "'I have heard so.' fashion which was peculiar to him. "Thank you. And your address?" seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, He took an orange from the cupboard, and tearing it to pieces he pockets to make sure of the coat's sinking. He throws it out, and "What will you say?" which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business to the many causes célèbres and sensational trials in which I aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest anything with him. We feed him once a day, and not too much then, leave you to your papers for a little." interests were the same as his." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into midnight of the preceding night and ran in this way: I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he breakfast." clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. light and attacked it." disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It "On the contrary, this is the right side." fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out I shall continue with my miserable story. clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do matters immensely." harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of It was difficult to refuse any of Sherlock Holmes' requests, for something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. future lives." While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, Cross for the Continent." looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to "Will you bet, then?" stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular begun to whiten, even as mine has." "Very well, sir. And this stone?" chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no sleepers from their beds. It struck cold to our hearts, and I stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to it may be of some service in the investigation which lies before or other trace. But how on earth--" smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some straightened it out again. bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon could not shake off the vague feeling of dread which it left The lady gave a violent start and stared in bewilderment at my observed that the small, unburned margins which lay amid the husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning "When I arrived at the house," continued Holmes, "I at once went "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the call for it in person on Monday morning.'