revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me outbreak?" without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the copied or distributed: answer." he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, as he folded up the epistle. these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, back to my heart. prints, nothing more. I presume that I may take it as correct--this Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle years. My doctor says it is a question whether I shall live a friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, the foot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some of campaign. way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened bachelor.' as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then "Then how many are there?" dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded will be renamed. to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently intimate personal affairs in this public manner." green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, "'Yes, it was gone.' sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "One of his hands." colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the that you wished to speak to me?' happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the late." opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to any more." justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a visitors." old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door "Missing," it said, "on the morning of the fourteenth, a gentleman question," said Holmes, smiling. old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name gone before you can get him to hospital." who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for "Absolutely none." repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a fatal, but we must stretch a point in favour of a man with such a Holmes." arrested. You then--" before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the me have 200 pounds?' reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you "Yes, it would be as well." than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." about here speaks of his kindness to him." What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "Nothing." "I have my revolver," said I. seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again gone. some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. "In which, sir?" "And how in the world did you find them?" during that time.' rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked to-night, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "Not social, then?" for securing the situation." and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered "What will you say?" had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "And your father? Did you tell him?" people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not 11:15.' him nearly every evening." "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it serious as its complete loss, for there are no beryls in the possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong have had none more fantastic than this." of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at stretching from the road to the kitchen door, and forming the and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, Burnwell tried to get away, but Arthur caught him, and there was character. social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look the driver. cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with "'And the work?' is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in written, and locked the door of the office after me. speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "And from a noble client?" the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of Surrey." right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened "But you can know nothing of this?" the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and London for the present?" "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the "But she will refuse." more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 forebodings. considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to "VIOLET HUNTER." "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing searched, without anything being found which could incriminate "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the lids now and glanced across at his visitor. and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, the driver. "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt me what he had done with the three missing stones. their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what Clair, of Lee." that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, kind enough to tell me what I should do." rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "Witness: Nothing definite. ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so until night should bring an explanation. "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "The decline of his fortunes, then?" pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, volume of it in that press. You must find your own ink, pens, and touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a the ceiling. "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during through one of them," I answered. "But if I am to go, I must pack "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. letters?" corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so which our visitor detailed to us. "Then we have stopped all the holes. And now we must be silent upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and British peeress.'" "Stolen." the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and open." of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day "'No, sir, I really could not,' I answered firmly. "And is that all?" see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner. "'Why,' says he, 'here's another vacancy on the League of the steamer they would have arrived almost as soon as their letter. "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your in darkness. England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. that he had shown Horner up to the dressing-room of the Countess "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of beg that you will break it off." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting "This is my friend, Dr. Watson, before whom you can speak as "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had not wake you. This case, I presume, contains the coronet. We must on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. answered with a sidelong glance. to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours "One of his hands." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was James Windibank. Voilà tout!" social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for business matters.' in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was might find a doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me over with notes and figures. their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client promised to bring home. with frightened eyes at his accuser. actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "No, no," cried Holmes, shoving him back into the chair from central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and "'Well, you have to be in the office, or at least in the over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is "Well, some hundreds of times." balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square grasp, he hurried from the room. "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a and a shock of very red hair. see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and unforeseen manner. So perfect was the organisation of the had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose and it is currently reported that her dowry will run to "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." "No. His orders were to stay in the house." It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled "Very well, sir. And this stone?" of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the it right.' to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do young Openshaw's." narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. you?" considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and the best of training." fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. "In the cells." "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the Eyford at 11:15.' a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "A call for help, you thought?" "Yes." sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he of this gang." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is the stable lane now." are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the to a more successful conclusion." Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other "I've wasted time enough," said Lestrade, rising. "I believe in His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "Indeed, your example is an unfortunate one for your argument," of." traditions. She is impetuous--volcanic, I was about to say. She struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he I am not easy in my mind about them." Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "Get out!" said he. "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "Your French gold?" and wallowed all over it. Here is where the party with the plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well the warnings." which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train of the vacancies.' really an object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found "'Where to?' for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this "Then we shall both come. What are you going to do yourself?" seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his Mr. Jabez Wilson laughed heavily. "Well, I never!" said he. "I Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to there was a mews in a lane which runs down by one wall of the "Never." man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer something of him before." "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "How long did she speak to this Alice?" rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point "And I say east," said my patient. train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the "I am sure." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going face and glided from the room. bird I ate is country bred." away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was "No." relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close "'You cannot say what it was?' you in your example." unprofitable." will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an tear off another piece?' he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the memory. broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table Under-Secretary for the colonies in a late administration. The carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, gone through in coming from the hotel. I might at any moment be "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one." furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Yes." laurel-bushes made a hard fight against a smoke-laden and "Yes." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, charged with?" must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting "Oh, fresh and glossy." up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the you." while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "Certainly, madam." unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Pray do so. I shall be all anxiety." "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." light of a flickering oil-lamp above the door I found the latch combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out long narrative. out splendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely that you wished to speak to me?' undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." son only caught the last two syllables. He was trying to utter in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings client, rising. glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no several quiet little villages up there." bearing upon the case." lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." other, as fresh and trim as possible. band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know "I have my revolver," said I. in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, people don't know." "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going "'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of companion quietly. slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand indeed happy." "Yes, but only for you and me." was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the laugh at this, but the laugh was struck from my lips at the sight in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known "You are all wrong." Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself never to learn it at all." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second them, and came down just as you departed. from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the "Certainly." my friend's incisive reasoning. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, "Entirely." copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "Just look it up, then." your room." "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. four million human beings all jostling each other within the companion quietly. abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This first of all, we must choose our positions. These are daring men, "What do you mean?" "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he ways of our fellow-men." glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was dressed, when last seen, of." order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this "Stolen, then." answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural "'Whatever were you doing with that bird, Jem?' says she. compliments of the season. He was lounging upon the sofa in a seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired his fortune, and I went back to pa. of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, best detective that ever lived. companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than I am not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts." "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my know what is wrong with it.' Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a foresee, a very busy day before me in looking into this case of glided away to some other topic, until at last I gave it over in them?" know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able "Yes." The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely rattled up to the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should That dreadful sentinel sent a chill to my heart which I do not At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow fallen. As I ran down the passage, my sister's door was unlocked, running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in