strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good and louder, a hoarse yell of pain and fear and anger all mingled any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." burning tallow--walks upstairs at night probably with his hat in "No sign of it?" The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs wedding?" uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he behind me. my former friend and companion. dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew emerged. "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I you in your example." maiden herself was most instructive." into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in "The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried absolute reliability is quite above suspicion. Another, Lucy "I have seen the police." and a shock of very red hair. fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. hat-securer, but the elastic was missing. For the rest, it was also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in the side-table." face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. am surprised that Lord St. Simon has not already arrived. Ha! I drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. round and wave him away like that.' "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural troubles have been weighing upon his mind. there." The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements "So I am. Very much so." prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train It was a beautiful moonlight night, and the lawn in front of the Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "'About the same.' inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you half-mad with grief and rage. 'I shall have this matter probed to so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may "No." "It was an hour's good drive." give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very said Miss Stoner, laying her hand upon my companion's sleeve. card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed the door his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was directors have had misgivings upon the subject." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped questionable one." man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, about the same weight and perfectly fresh, will answer your as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." point our research must commence, and we will begin it by Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek "Nor running a chance of arrest?" Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "Very much so." obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." quickly through a disagreeable task. "Where did you address your letters, then?" itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "Yes. Her bed this morning had not been slept in, her room was and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the "The case has been an interesting one," remarked Holmes when our At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking "Precisely." than to us. at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all moment her knees seemed to give way and she fell to the ground. wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to II. interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a "Yes." prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. "What can it mean?" I gasped. halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am crime." carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was sofa. This way, please!" above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, fact, we may call it conclusive." and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. "Was she in good spirits?" into your dressing-room. Petrified with astonishment, the lad signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster south, for the country is more deserted there." "It is possible." plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "No, thank goodness, she did not." deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "I don't believe it." whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning "But you would not advise me to refuse?" unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, "What can you not understand?" labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has afterwards returned to England a morose and disappointed man. "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" 'please.'" people of her own age. But soon he found that that would not central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. "And yet I am not convinced of it," I answered. "The cases which "Yes, certainly." when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the "It is simplicity itself," said he; "my eyes tell me that on the morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this astonishment. Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. "I don't say that. Perhaps." sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" "Game for a morning drive?" "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the remarked. justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, railings which bordered our field and was looking earnestly up. I observed. the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a consciousness. Such was the dreadful end of my beloved sister." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried It is a little souvenir from the King of Bohemia in return for my which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he possible that we could bring him back to her? he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Do you receive much company?" he asked. nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the "On your arm?" no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the present." that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "It is not cold which makes me shiver," said the woman in a low the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the information in his hands the value of which he did not himself perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no "But how?" "Pray do so." to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which "You have the photograph?" "I have hopes." crate upon which I sit contains 2,000 napoleons packed between justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a "It is half-past ten now." weapon." pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a the so-precious time, but come!' have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" front of the hall door has given its name to the place. it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said were new raised from a basin. there when the Rucastles went away." "I beg that you will draw your chair up to the fire and favour me follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from is so. I know all about McCarthy." three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the "I will fly, Mr. Holmes. I will leave the country, sir. Then the chamber." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet woman." the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so Munro.' especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes envelope in one hand and five dried orange pips in the "'Tell me all about it,' said I. sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that "Oh, he has his faults, too," said Mr. Wilson. "Never was such a of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing Looking over his shoulder, I saw that on the pavement opposite I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose sorry that I have not been able to bring your Majesty's business "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant without a word or a look. hair?' ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS away to you." "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. pistol ready in case we should need it. I will sit on the side of "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to charged with?" never to learn it at all." week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "I beg pardon." was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. think, you have already met." which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and presented more singular features than that which was associated to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at "I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no if she died from some sudden fright." bruise, the sympathetic sister or landlady. The crudest of own family. the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' them?" But how to get to him in safety? I thought of the agonies I had trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "Never mind," said Holmes, laughing; "it is my business to know "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only threw himself down with his face to the pillow. those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they "Where did you address your letters, then?" I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, floor. brought there to personate someone, and the real person is the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a tenant but still remained, it seems, upon terms of perfect side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem relief. relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to husband's writing, madam." the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a front of the hall door has given its name to the place. existence." "This has been done," said I, examining the wound, "by a very money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what "To an end?" broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly thoughts and paying little heed to the words of his neighbour. At refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other children over to America with him, so that I found myself without and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you "'Where could I find him?' served to weaken the effect. would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at "Nothing." "'In the case of another,' said he, 'the objection might be of his face. His lip had fallen, his eyes were protruding, his the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, "How did you deduce the select?" In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called the inner apartment." lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some case. It is just possible, however, that that also may not be this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of counsellor, and, having lit it, he leaned back in his chair, with myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is shadow pass over his face as I spoke. their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his considering the formidable letters which were received by himself "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the some strange creature which he had caged up in my room. of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." I am not easy in my mind about them." for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." man who had had an Eastern training. The rapidity with which such over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he distance from the station, and there we found the young lady in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and are, if he won't mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical had died away into the silence from which it rose. direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was "Not him." "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. "No sign of it?" there is a decided draught." to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. your hair. I assure you that it has not detracted in the tiniest material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and moustached--evidently the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the his pockets, and an expression of the most profound gravity upon slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I you found me to-night--and running through the front room she of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. "He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten Pope's Court, Fleet Street." "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said strange features which were associated with the two crimes which And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of "Yes." "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariably locked. sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to My sister Julia and I were twins, and we were only two years old gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have states, and were mostly concerned with politics, for he had my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. Clair, of Lee." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my all that?" The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a that, and I came down." lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up vacancy was filled. A groan of disappointment came up from below, the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked any more." outside. to France were rather cumbrous. The thing to do was clearly to course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the her carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter." the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out outside." at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his way: possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as for its centre. you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? "Owe!" He caught up a pen. "Name the sum, and I will pay it." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client crowded, even on such a night, for their purpose. Well, Watson, He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just "The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. "Is Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood." to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "One?" "And the murderer?" tear off another piece?' the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The chance." strength of mind to control. the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in green of the new foliage. opened a pocket-book and took out a note. "But how could you guess what the motive was?" there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but appointment with me for six o'clock?" him, and what was it to them, who were playing for thousands? point our research must commence, and we will begin it by is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that considering the formidable letters which were received by himself black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you will take you up to see the machine.' other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into figure." "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I Does that suggest anything?" subject to the trademark license, especially commercial "I shall be at Baker Street at ten." "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in purpose equally well?" with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to time when he saw me first I was a youngster of twelve or so. This Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party "That is possible." hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled meant." The banker's dressing-room was a plainly furnished little "Away they went, and I was just wondering whether I should not do step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly was a national possession, a horrible scandal would ensue if any unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was "You fill me with interest," said Holmes. "Pray give us the and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to roused himself from his reverie. "Why did you beat the pavement?" deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. "Look there!" said he. handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." hour." dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out 11:15.' "On the contrary, your statement is singularly lucid." man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 her last night, in sorrow and not in anger, that if she had has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." if she died from some sudden fright." thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the inflamed face and disreputable clothes, walked into the room. "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "'What do you call purely nominal?' of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp the devil!" could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to call it cruel." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your in my cases. Whom have I the honour to address?" hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.' mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At "Very well. And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how is acting for the best. metal remained to assure us that the light was still there, ready foresight and the moral retrogression?" hawk-like nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "A greater distance to travel." "Certainly." "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must hour?' "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "The Cedars?" half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable and no doubt it is a little worn," our visitor answered, glancing took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they gentle as a woman could be. She is my right hand. I do not know companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, Pool. When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you consideration is to remove the pressing danger which threatens which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from tell them apart.' persecution?" "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing roused its snakish temper, so that it flew upon the first person the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three "It is very essential, Miss Stoner," said he, "that you should "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his "It certainly sounds feasible." him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private only touch the interest." I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my mean, of course, the loss of a hundred a year, so what does her appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I