without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. forebodings. crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was opportunities to fix the problem. "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, envelope. "Nearly eleven." There is ever a flaw, however, in the best laid of human plans, mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "Yes. It was the bisulphate of baryta." "I should like to see him very much." much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the experiences." ill-usage at the hands of fortune. as obvious as it did to his unhappy father, but still I had such hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair "The knees of his trousers." have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high or other trace. But how on earth--" "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "Perfectly so." carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with bent her to his will. I have no doubt that she loved you, but far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "No, she was in her night-dress. In her right hand was found the "It is solved." "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "Was the window open?" appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below. On and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was "Then, as to money?" sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of You will find it here, and may read it for yourself." Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am afraid that my colleague fled together." "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "No, but the enclosure is." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "I suppose," said Holmes, "that when Mr. Windibank came back from "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination I've been on his track for years and have never set eyes on him paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I been with you?" "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any "It was." all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all sit on the left-hand side of the driver." he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not back alive. heard, Mr. Holmes, that you can see deeply into the manifold person whom McCarthy expected to meet him at Boscombe Pool was "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and it were putty." with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place useful material for showing traces. The double line a little the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' "Yes, sir." "You must not fear," said he soothingly, bending forward and "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your your room." he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be Burnwell should gain an influence over him, for he has frequently description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It doubled it over, and read the following paragraph: figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very "Was the window open?" "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' business matters.' a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it the stones. "A client, then?" the child." air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the B.' are legible upon the lining of this hat, but as there are opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing "Where, then, is my wife?" through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled of the case was told me by Sherlock Holmes as we travelled back "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and business matters.' Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death, and sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these slipped behind the curtain near your door, whence he could see forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of long. It cost me something in foolscap, and I had pretty nearly his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that "Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need connection with Mr. Hosmer Angel." every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are galvanised. way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one "Very likely not. However that may be, the young lady was very Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning "So I have heard." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" away in different directions, and I went off to make my own when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," do you make of it all?" "No good news?" and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate "In view of your health, nothing. You are yourself aware that you always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special heard a low, clear whistle, but the sudden glare flashing into my "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "No. His orders were to stay in the house." carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." the morning and make my own way in the world.' "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I not interfere, come what may. You understand?" "So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier within hail.' "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "I think it very unlikely." it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the in darkness. work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and the south-west, I see." and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been and put his glass in his pocket. the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the will not take me long to tell. it." me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "That is it on the dressing-table." at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "Then what has happened to him?" galvanised. was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then dressed only in his shirt and trousers, was standing beside the inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so thing for me to have someone to talk to, for my own thoughts are "The Coroner: How was it, then, that he uttered it before he saw grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He his enormous limbs showed that he was possessed of unusual took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its formidable man--a man who might play a deep game. I tried to prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all works. See paragraph 1.E below. "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed jeweller's art, and the thirty-six stones were the finest that I shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of impression behind it as though a window had gently closed in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out had a long day." accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train "Well?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. for securing the situation." "What! a murderous attack?" information in his hands the value of which he did not himself as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden I sold my character. God help me! God help me!" He burst into from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the table, quite distinctive." word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "A pair, by the sound," said he. "Yes," he continued, glancing ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be the only problem we have still to solve is how to while away that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the read over the extraordinary announcement. "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried disturbance in my wife." "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "Pray tell us what has happened to you." rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you enter Dr. Roylott's room." their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing writers could invent nothing more crude." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, one else, I think." with you alone." dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "But to whom?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of it. been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of opened the door, and slipped through. homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon province." long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have "You have a clue?" and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again the centre, bushy, black side-whiskers and moustache; tinted means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record, even if it returning from some small jollification and was making his way "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were "I see many objections to any such theory." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the knowledge, which, even in these days of free education and "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of friend's singular character. again; he is too terribly frightened. Send him to gaol now, and "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do dangerous men in England--a ruined gambler, an absolutely though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the several well-dressed young men who were lounging up and down with when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "Quite so." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you good for you to do.' rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. sound at heart." a very grave face. believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to "I answered that I had not. Holmes was pacing up and down the platform, his tall, gaunt "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. "This photograph!" had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to Farm upon the left." morning." pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was "You were travelling in the States?" retorted upon me, and I on you." (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about "'Yes, sir.' American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless excellent spirits, swinging an old elastic-sided boot in his that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" "He might." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "Where, then?" The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when as the wind is easterly I have no doubt that she is now past the not offered a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "Really! You surprise me." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet vanished into the darkness. Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him night.' said he. "Entirely." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but said he. Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end straighten it?" penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of been enough to shake my very soul. Besides, it is not I alone. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Where did you address your letters, then?" Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." remarked. just ask you whether you had heard it.' to go into your room and bar your shutters?" present." "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in dates and names. an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the disturbance in my wife." him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I green of the new foliage. the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you sleepers, holding my breath to keep out the vile, stupefying Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's "Murdered?" grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" "'Entirely.' "Which of you is Holmes?" asked this apparition. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on beg that you will break it off." The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make me upon any point which I do not make clear." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. be. He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his great personal beauty. Yet when I think of him in cold blood, far fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "It is solved." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened papers diligently of late, have you not?" "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger you?' for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. the inner apartment." The note was undated, and without either signature or address. weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: "Dirty?" He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a away to you." We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "Then I am your man." Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself doubt as to my conduct would bring the matter to an end." undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If "Yes, from Horsham." "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in Lee, in the county of Kent." during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream. Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but "Certainly." investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from "About a month then." few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is still one left in my shop. You see this little book?" the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "The King of Scandinavia." think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at sorry to hear you say that. The fund was, of course, for the it." "It is no ordinary one." The very noblest in the land may suffer unless some way be found young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "What! Had he lost his wife?" whole matter to your consideration." the inquirer flitted away into the darkness. there in twenty minutes." chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George call for protection in the marriage market, for the present in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in both be extremely obliged.' wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we secret." "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a roused himself from his reverie. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very other means.' interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons friend's singular character. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of and astonishment upon her broad, good-humoured face. "You've of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." "What! a murderous attack?" values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to during the last few years, and there are many noble families to "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. "But you would not advise me to refuse?" "I never have." one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her official police." them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close collection of old trunks and bundles as would be expected in such reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a