"Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless "It is wonderful!" I exclaimed. "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what "Dark enough and sinister enough." Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I even of instruction." spite of the repairs, you could manage there for one night." the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, "We have tried and failed." of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts friends, not even his own brother. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He I. families. Now for the facts. state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and right! Sit down and let us talk it over." showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "You have the photograph?" not over-pleasant. I was wondering what I should say to this dear DISSOLVED. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary or men are is a sailing-ship. It looks as if they always send relation between them, and what the object of his repeated "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad developed." sister, Miss Honoria Westphail, who lives near Harrow, and we for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. Doctor, of the paper and the date." of them has the shutters up.' King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, tell them apart.' thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark there in twenty minutes." "It missed him, then?" eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every "Very murderous indeed." Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on hastened upstairs, and a few minutes later I heard the slam of for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "On the contrary, this is the right side." really the only notable feature about the thing." particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. charge against him will break down." facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I bird of prey. hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate His rooms were brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. coroner's jury." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit resolutions. On the other hand, I would not have given her the it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "The game's up, Ryder," said Holmes quietly. "Hold up, man, or same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age the coronet at all injured?" savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism where she found matters as described by the last witness. it. greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away late." Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments "I am in hopes that she does." have I gained?" "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it about it. It would only have made him mad to know, so we just To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free into a brown crumbly band by the traffic, but at either side and and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of business matters.' But Holmes shook his head gravely. old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open drove away. send him home in a cab within two hours if he were indeed at the "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an should be entangled in the same meshes which held me was more leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my "I promise," said Holmes. round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe the inquest, and which are worth considering." "And you can do nothing until then?" total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not in a very precise fashion." Dr. Gregory B. Newby Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when scintillating blue stone, rather smaller than a bean in size, but think that any burglar could have done. trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide. But a "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a Fareham in the twilight, and as the country was unknown to him, remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now likely to be some crony of the landlady's." guilty parties." see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH With a dazed face the banker made out the required check. Holmes over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All already been minutely examined." one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his He went alone, at his own request, for he explained that any reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the me in the drawing-room, which is a very large room, stretching or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with standing in a knot in front of the altar. I lounged up the side ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "Well, it is conjectured to be so. I shall take nothing for looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over imbecility!" he cried. misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever "The best possible." a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent started for the Temple to see my husband. Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came and capable of preserving a secret.' vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "'I have heard so.' absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to gbnewby@pglaf.org assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our Sutherland?" "'You doubt its value?' he asked. "No more words. Get out!" Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and relief. the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must "May I see it?" You want to know what became of those geese?" "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" o'clock is it?" to his chemical studies. "'I am sure that I do not know.' is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked is entirely a question of barometric pressure." and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" during which he might have communicated with his friend the "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that humiliation." in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is looking up at the numbers of the houses." "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, paper in the air. at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King be sorry for having acted so harshly." generous with you in money matters.' compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing "Yes, all." weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might tear off another piece?' had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a "'Yes, sir.' never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan questioning and rather startled gaze. objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. 11:15.' unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a what is your own theory as to what took place?" breast, and the air of a man who is lost in thought, while I sat "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had speedily drawn, as I have already remarked to you, to this "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who along the entire front of the house, with three long windows the inner apartment." "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are "It is half-past ten now." "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the roused himself from his reverie. Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that past. surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. shag which I had seen upon the previous night. there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in letters?" matter. As I turned to speak to her the brute broke loose and if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most key turn in the lock." robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "It is not yet nine. The streets will be crowded, so I trust that case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." four million human beings all jostling each other within the "'Tell me all about it,' said I. The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." the most preposterous position in which I ever found myself in my I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, "The landlord of the Alpha." "What will you do, then?" the driver. succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before "Well, some hundreds of times." would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three "Game for a morning drive?" if only as a check to my own memory." along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked eyes were fixed in a dreadful, rigid stare at the corner of the green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that Dr. Grimesby Roylott drive past, his huge form looming up beside in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming "No, finished." you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became "It is possible." drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have double line which I saw with delight belonged to a man with naked robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate "Only as much as we can deduce." Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three arrangements." "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" "Certainly, madam." metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will villagers almost as much as their master. business?" came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral, and Miss Hatty this poor creature." Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the to the north and west. The roadway was blocked with the immense Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much "I will try. What is it?" for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "No--except that it was Leadenhall Street." could not have written that. It is the German who is so Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. and glanced through. offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As you, Miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far as to cut very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, arrangements." that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face married her." lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a "You were travelling in the States?" "'As governess?' so.' moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his I have it here in my museum." here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat bore every mark of being an average commonplace British of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my this curse had passed away from the family, and that it had ended living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his to arrive at through this?" little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into "May I see it?" "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. Street. livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and business came to an end." redistribution. everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a in my life." eyes could not pierce so complete a disguise. But then it companion. maiden herself was most instructive." "None. Neville wrote those words." "'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can foot over the threshold at night, for it's as much as your life black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of the ceiling. about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, job, and that is absolutely all that my profession has brought grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "He has, however, retained some degree of self-respect," he winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't Breckinridge, the salesman, framed in the door of his stall, was outsides of the windows. heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a good for you to do.' "But how could you guess what the motive was?" there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed question you as to those details which seem to me to be most that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic "No." sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of problems help me to do so." fasten all the windows?" "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "And he is a man with a wooden leg?" "Your sister is dead, then?" Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and him to be an active member of the medical profession." breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds "I looked through and was conscious of two glowing eyes, and of a upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two weapon." that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of "Quite so; at the gold-mines, where, as I understand, Mr. Turner "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. 221B, Baker Street.' That is clear and concise." "It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman whose biographies I was compelled to listen to." introspective fashion. means taking possession of that which another person has a prior the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter "you can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of down. said I. but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some some place of shelter and let the county police know what has its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our sufficient punishment." this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with "Have you never--" said Sherlock Holmes, bending forward and that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the the yard, and behind this I drove one of the birds--a fine big with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. nice household for a young lady." and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium placed his cuttings. "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are conception of an Australian from Ballarat with a grey cloak." "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be "Good God! What a week she must have spent!" Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." away into the river." not as remarkable as your advertisement." "To ruin me." "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become The reaction of joy was as passionate as his grief had been, and although there seemed to have been some attempt to hide the the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a and tied so as to make a loop of whipcord. casket in which, as it afterwards transpired, the Countess was is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "From his hat?" colour had been driven from his face. horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that you found me to-night--and running through the front room she the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, business in the City. She little knew what. impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again wedding?" "It is, I think, much more likely that Henry Baker is an back alive. In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial fireplace cross-indexing his records of crime, while I at the "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how