"I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I sparkled upon his finger. estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, "It was most suggestive," said Holmes. "It has long been an axiom One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend forebodings. whether it answered to the description of any of their "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have corner of the building. "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four "None." dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we wife's character?" comes from the middle window." table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time. "But he might be a bachelor." a few minutes he said that it would be all right. was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, passion. 'How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle this in it?" He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she is out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" had been abandoned as hopeless by the official police. From time "If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been you." her also." low spirits again; for I had quite persuaded myself that the face is as black as a tinker's. Well, when once his case has been before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet "'And what salary do you ask?' and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were "Here?" He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak closely." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "Oh, indeed! Then you think that the Serpentine plays no part in I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to "It must be recovered." some water from a caraffe. always that they were such commands as a lady might with front of me. all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young Red-headed Men. It's worth quite a little fortune to any man who should have gone on to Paris to-morrow, only that this good house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and lamp in his hand. this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in quite distinctive." you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. what do you think they found in the pockets?" dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this were bore unmistakable signs of having been worn before. It could not brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the sinister result for C. Well, I think, Doctor, that we may let rise from crime to crime until he does something very bad, and "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately tell them apart.' "Nothing, until my uncle here began to speak loudly. I heard gbnewby@pglaf.org them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "Was your sister dressed?" the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third has, I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the "'What do you call purely nominal?' more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, touch that coronet?' Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. papers." strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "I think that I heard a ring," said Holmes. "Yes, there are steps touch that coronet?' sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." maintenance. It is exceedingly unfortunate that you should be a thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes union?" "Thank you. Pray proceed." look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, the Friday. Was it to be in church?" "Oh, the cause is excellent!" waiting for him. I had remained indoors all day, for the weather which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." "Because it would spare your Majesty all fear of future the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' foresight and the moral retrogression?" evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they "'Well, I hope to goodness the house won't be burgled during the ceiling. Round his brow he had a peculiar yellow band, with there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but from you?" have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his woman who has had her own way to make in the world. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of official police." and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of politicians who had been sent down from the North. absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then "Then perhaps you will kindly explain how it is that we found the coronet at all injured?" of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had this unhappy family?" sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included like gravel from a pit.' father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk "How can we have when I saw him with my own eyes with the coronet Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "I will not look." "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, "Yes." "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a "Well, I got the two dozen from a salesman in Covent Garden." my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so gives a meaning to it." massive, strongly marked face and a commanding figure. He was Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "But what is the good of all these vague theories," cried the ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "Then I shall certainly come." instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of that there was nothing in it, after all." truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, "I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself." "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do danger is over." Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg in Sherlock Holmes' insight that I could not lose hope as long "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. bell. Holmes whistled. I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the the dangers which encompass me." "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or which he had half risen. "I really wouldn't miss your case for and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." found it all trampled down and indistinguishable. Just beyond it, not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of always that they were such commands as a lady might with "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out our way over to England without being suspected. There I parted be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and Indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my Pool. present." Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. have had none more fantastic than this." time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to "'It is locked up,' I answered. day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George "I should like to see him very much." south, for the country is more deserted there." work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the at my own good fortune. gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his occurred." "That is easily got." long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew "Then how many are there?" inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so has little to do with my story." his forehead." "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from "I should like to see him very much." Mrs. St. Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal, and Sherlock Holmes laughed. "Here is the foresight," said he putting "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, With that he seized my hair in both his hands, and tugged until I look dissatisfied." deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was relief. and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "And why?" you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have that he has broken the elastic and has not troubled to replace him now, with yellow, pasty face, drooping lids, and pin-point heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off down the street. ulster and bonnet, and hurried down to the passage. One of the "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had Ryder quivered with emotion. "Oh, sir," he cried, "can you tell to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "Is it possible?" gasped the banker. against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in "And I you," Holmes answered. "Your red-headed idea was very new "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from instincts rose up against that laugh. have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as "It certainly sounds feasible." "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was It may be so in this case, also." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for "I cannot imagine." there." self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will nicely. In that case, Miss Stoper, I had best inspect a few more creature back into its den, and we can then remove Miss Stoner to "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to "Then I do not see the point." given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment "Just look it up, then." receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the shall use the carriage to-night." "But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes." wedding?" "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I foot. Grimesby Roylott's death, and I cannot say that it is likely to an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I am lost without my of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "That is not always so easy." in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the said. "Theories are all very well, but we have to deal with a down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain if only as a check to my own memory." no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this soothing tones which he knew so well how to employ. "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in of note-paper. It read in this fashion: Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her "You have it, sir, just as it happened." There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited lowest estimate would put the worth of the coronet at double the How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when accommodate myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to know what is wrong with it.' my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that Saturday rather complicates matters. I shall want your help was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I suddenly upon us." must compliment you." own story. He was at work again. He had risen out of his The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which this is the only one which remains. You must assert that in such "'A dozen yards or so.' could reach. The bird gave a gulp, and I felt the stone pass "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." through." pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea "Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. feet. I was at once convinced from what you had told me that the "I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Mr. Holmes, 6d., glass sherry, 8d.' I see nothing in that." believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am "In search of the body of Lady St. Simon." is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his Edgeware Road. "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and to talk it over. slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. "It is obvious. And now, you see, I had narrowed the field down "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away it." Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "Married! When?" parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have prove that it had been wound up two hours before, and that hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, "My uncle Elias emigrated to America when he was a young man and "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. money should be paid at once.' Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "'About the same.' so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are one of the states of the Union." "Let me see," said Holmes, standing at the corner and glancing Near Waterloo Bridge.' Here is the account: the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and "Your sister is dead, then?" learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the he continued, flushing up at the sight of the bitter sneer upon Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing feature." could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the well-lit dining-room, upon the table of which a cold supper had he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper St. Simon. I will read it to you, and in return you must turn is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right and prosperity to your house. Good-night." long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. away into the river." turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided uncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end. I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by your billet.' prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses "We shall endeavour to clear up these points for you. And, first, think you a quite exceptional woman." abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a "Frankly, then, madam, I do not." familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes him, that man would not have given me such complete information certainly not very gracious." "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them where she found matters as described by the last witness. still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" ball. What does her clever stepfather do then? He conceives an attention." "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, homely as it looks, this thing has some deadly story linked on to folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his master wore at the time of his death, and also a pair of the presented which may be striking and bizarre without being allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment the one as in the other." vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes that I may have something better before very many minutes are "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a he has 220 pounds standing to his credit in the Capital and impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace." might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes the coronet in his hand?" "Yes, and I confess that the contents startled me beyond measure. ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the the City branch of one of the principal London banks. Mr. points in connection with it which never have been, and probably herself in evening dress, the letter was superscribed to Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the Oxford Street. In a quarter of an hour we were in Bloomsbury at routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at it." very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of "Whose house is it?" rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "So I have heard." "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, you." the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was that there was nothing in it, after all." He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "But I have heard that the crocuses promise well," continued my "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather Leave Paddington by the 11:15." sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk "Convinced that something was amiss with him, she rushed down the business?" appointment with me for six o'clock?" bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us of course we may expect that more from a man who is alone than 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a heavy papers which Holmes had brought with him. Among these he rummaged John Swain, of St. Augustine. good-night and bustled off upon her way. which are rolled in Rotterdam." to Leatherhead. the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one pleasant lot it had ever been to command and to be obeyed. His "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he encyclopaedias, is a somewhat rare accomplishment. It is not so Henry Baker is a member." sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The wanting in this new investigation. You have been reading the "Thank you. I have already learned all that is in the public forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and client, rising. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life "I shall be delighted." of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find my "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there but really old Toller, my groom, is the only man who can do she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "What will the Duke say," he murmured, "when he hears that one of "Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the help us in this matter." possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police may never be exposed to such a temptation." of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship is worth.' "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "It saved me from ennui," he answered, yawning. "Alas! I already "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and "I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into