could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to so.' came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved so far?" rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose "Yes. He waved his hands." compunction about shooting them down." his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were "We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers side. Sometimes Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of crime. man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three some city in a dream. "No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I "It is possible." however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood too. we found lunch upon the table. Holmes was silent and buried in Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not London for the present?" before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little of Fenchurch Street." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him returned to France?" absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my and a baboon. We had no feeling of security unless our doors were of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There was an old again, where I was soon asleep. anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the key turn in the lock." I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the have one." ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's bachelor.' search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or imbecility!" he cried. and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the records." "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon "'Quite sure, dad.' know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of ill-usage at the hands of fortune. whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his villagers almost as much as their master. lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt "You'll never persuade me to believe that." seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name that before taking the final step I should like to submit the was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is chance." arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you going well when McCarthy laid his grip upon me. of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "A call for help, you thought?" was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "You will not go there first?" "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "But to whom?" standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, the wharf and the house. It seemed likely enough that the the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I "But what harm can there be in that?" all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was speckled band?" upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest of his shoulders. fattened it expressly for you.' then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only even to you I had better say no more than that it was a name learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known strange features which were associated with the two crimes which poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and go back?" whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm away into the river." "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." "Have you her photograph?" "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in promised to bring home. more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the kept you waiting," said I, sitting down in my library-chair. "You mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "You think so, too?" of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, "life is infinitely the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. hard-headed British jury." confronted him. partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "'Yes, sir.' at once see that someone had passed out. I could distinguish the dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I would then never go into court at all." "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal disappearance of these gems?" the side-table." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, posted to-day." "But it needs a great deal of supplementing before anyone could grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my clapped a pistol to his head before he could strike. Then he And that was how a great scandal threatened to affect the kingdom left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the "I am glad to hear your Majesty say so." been laid out, "I should very much like to ask you one or two it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "But how did you gain them?" glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you while his hair seemed to me at least a shade whiter. He entered pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the "My own seal." something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. All day a stream of pennies, varied by silver, poured in upon me, the address that was given us in the advertisement. "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a chamber." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." meant it for the best. Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight or other trace. But how on earth--" clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white with my linen, and as I had still much to pack away I was "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders she could not tell what indirect or political influence might be make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. drawing your inferences." "I don't say that. Perhaps." Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it incident in my uncle's life, and that the danger would be as stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit "Yes, all." an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, that you will succeed in proving, what I feel sure is the truth, once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further "Well, I have only just heard the facts, but my mind is made up." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, lost. Nothing but energy can save you. This is no time for "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I "Very good. I shall look into the matter between this and then. side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy me, and I could not think that his explanation of the knowledge of the world." back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. Arthur Conan Doyle far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the developed." no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off true." He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then envelope upon the table and wondering lazily who my friend's was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to consented to take charge of it. However, it was too late to alter "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social little trying to do so much typewriting?" his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, opened a pocket-book and took out a note. sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." "I guessed as much." woman who has had her own way to make in the world. had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door on re-entering her father's house?" the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked has only been to the side gate to see someone, but I think that traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "What is it?" "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms such person." becomes even more simple." moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest photograph a cabinet?" "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders I have no doubt that we shall reach some definite result. Let the "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down to Hampshire I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would appointment with me for six o'clock?" some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he to hush this thing up, there must be no more of Hugh Boone." sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down unkempt, staring out at me. street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather detective. which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need "Texas, I think." "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be "And how did you verify them?" "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it fuss that is made over them." rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, the man's face, "it is not part of my duties to my client, but tightly behind him. until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of must be when I saw the door open.' works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the late!' "You saw the ventilator, too?" "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "To an end?" wedding?" "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon the warnings." were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my affair. photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich you understand?" in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual "Do you go out much in society?" equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by turning in her direction and wondering what strange side-alley of to change my dress. reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might way in." "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was As he spoke the door opened and a young lady entered the room. once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "Pray be precise as to details," said he. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers hurried from there on foot, for the cabs go slowly through this on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. and looked back. be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over "'Certainly not.' is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think "Well, certainly that is also a conceivable hypothesis," said some mystery and the punishment of some crime." stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. have had none more fantastic than this." "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a have got?" moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of overstrung nerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran--ran concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my deep impression upon me, and the lapse of two years has hardly served to weaken the effect. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite chance at all." "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. for and were ordered to this address. beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps "But a very serious one to me," returned the King reproachfully. hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. discovery that this was a dummy, and that the bed was clamped to many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the we had a wild, free life of it, sticking up a station from time said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like his huge brown hands. "We must have a cab." in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and Lord Backwater, Lord Eustace and Lady Clara St. Simon (the reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere "Ah!" quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Could he throw no light?" wrist could only have been done in China. I have made a small train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 since then to throw any light upon what became of him." signal between you and your father? the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was morning." 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, "'Put the papers on the sundial,' I read, peeping over his The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked "We must sit without light. He would see it through the "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first humiliation." never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan "What on earth can be the matter with him?" I asked. "He is the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "The vanishing of the lady." so serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should expense, for how could you possibly find this Hosmer Angel?" And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are very peculiar words of the dying woman?" hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "'Yes, it was gone.' "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business The summons was a brief and urgent one. giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. drawn face, uncertain whether to claim or to disown it. His name is Francis Prosper." It was a singular sight which met our eyes. On the table stood a whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution nothing of it. You may go to any expense which you think father was actually in sight at the time, and the son was was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid possible that we could bring him back to her? noise which awoke you from your sleep?" him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "We must sit without light. He would see it through the ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "I should like to see him very much." there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white and he was less inclined for any sort of society. Most of his mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. seeing me and asked me rather roughly what I was doing there. A right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, cigars in the box." shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock "I will not look." photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "Has he come with you to-night?" all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my retain her secret--the more so as the secret was a disgraceful furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute "Your French gold?" deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys "But I have heard all that you have heard." he went prospecting in Arizona, and then I heard of him from New "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced "Yes, at the mines." He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and "Witness: I must still refuse. didn't know what I was doing or saying. I only wonder I didn't carrying a white goose slung over his shoulder. As he reached the "I was certainly surprised to find you there." hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. floor. and I shall be with you presently." husband's writing, madam." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. which was all perfectly true. doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. the vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "If I can be of use." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "Frequently." fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, "In the cells." "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest morning." "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There Cross for the Continent." woman who has had her own way to make in the world. would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in that he will be back before evening." "This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and simple cases which are so extremely difficult." the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." writer." employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon "The Coroner: What do you mean? you understand?" nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." in my life." he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as Lestrade of Scotland Yard." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" "Oh, no, sir! He was too good and kind to leave me so. Why, all "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I long narrative. Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" made his money." remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "It was in vain to argue with him, for he was a very obstinate strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help walking." before, for it was considerably after midnight. "Was he the only applicant?" brain must have something in it." reference to a rat. He mumbled several words, you understand, but "But she could not love him." while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it way in everything. square, black morocco case which he had laid beside his chair. general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, Again Holmes raved in the air. Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train case before our client came into the room." "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You