maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into "And I." to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at mysterious end." in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. was feeling which was the fattest.' "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking one or two very singular points about this room. For example, followed. "But you have hopes?" "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on the howl of the gale from without seemed to blend with the text, something very pressing which they have to communicate. Should it from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too habit of advancing money.' petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the fashion which was peculiar to him. "Well, really!" he cried, and then he choked and laughed again of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon "What!" he roared. "Why did you pick him?" that while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, without a word or a look. which was all perfectly true. purpose equally well?" he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account name which I have the honour to bear"--he gave a little stately wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a "None." notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel the expense of six shillings, made all sure by buying a pair of unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & but the father's laughter made me think that perhaps he was and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to "I will, Miss Turner." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or to do with the money. If my hair would only change colour, here's out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made his way advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked man. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a desk. do you make of it all?" had died away into the silence from which it rose. would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the more solid." all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of and had always been his friend. I ordered her to say nothing, but "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets prepare for the new role I have to play." to affect your life." outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "It is the purest accident. I cannot allow that there is any "The fire looks very seasonable in this weather. You look cold, remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" hesitating fashion at our windows, while her body oscillated "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" the bottom.' interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an has been a little quick in forming his conclusions," he said. effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he, and from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his iron gate. This also was opened, and led down a flight of winding would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a whose husband you found so easy when the police and everyone had say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." "Your boy, Arthur, went to bed after his interview with you but distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "By all means." that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but Shall be glad if you will come with me. Air and scenery perfect. might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when security.' "'A dozen yards or so.' his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him our very window a long drawn catlike whine, which told us that than was visible to me." "But you have hopes?" road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, examine." woodcock, a pheasant, a pâté de foie gras pie with a group of "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but will not say upon me, but upon so much that many have aspired to there." somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we sparkled upon his finger. and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the drunkard. I ran to her and threw my arms round her, but at that "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "And the cigar-holder?" "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a use an arc-and-compass breastpin." Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some he found us is more than I can think, and he showed us very and all of them with the keenest interest. Clair, of Lee." the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was the iron safe, which he closed upon it. International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. Mrs. Henry Baker' was printed upon a small card which was tied to "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the "We have tried and failed." grasp, he hurried from the room. space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to Heh?' (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "You seem to expect company. They have laid for five." week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for mouth of a cave, I found the den of which I was in search. "I noted, in passing, that she had written a note before leaving English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "I am all attention, madam." I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that him, that man would not have given me such complete information many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in would have been she, and that his marriage might have changed his habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in abroad, and he has been in failing health for some time. This "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. slow, but I shall only be away a couple of hours." this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of "I will try. What is it?" "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." charge against him will break down." Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences that the matter is not too delicate for communication. And yet ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they down from London to inquire more deeply into it." an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly deductions and your inferences. You have made two blunders in as "There is one other thing you owe, Mr. Holder," said Sherlock that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke disturbance in my wife." locked. lay listless, watching the huge crest and monogram upon the "Never to return." Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "You can easily imagine, Mr. Holmes, how curious I became as to "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Then the page we have seen--" miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was friends, not even his own brother. useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "I am armed." bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in smoking and laughing in a corner, a scissors-grinder with his aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life For additional contact information: were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London passage gazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the of his shoulders. ready to-morrow?' "'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, interests were the same as his." And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every "That sounds a little paradoxical." For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet long narrative. my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do you for a few hours?" can't get the end of it into my hand. Now, I'll state the case happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE I think that I could be of assistance to you." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle outside." quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for there." whether it answered to the description of any of their stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor opened the door, and slipped through. Nights, with no explanation save that the things had been paid "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look were a slut from off the streets. It drove me mad to think that I diamond-shaped head and puffed neck of a loathsome serpent. arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. distance from the station, and there we found the young lady stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them you, my dear young lady?' and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside "'The Church of St. Monica, John,' she cried, 'and half a a good hundred miles off by now." Holmes--a grievous disappointment. I have no doubt that I am stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He "Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out some place of shelter and let the county police know what has studied, near at hand. Beside the couch was a wooden chair, and remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "And also with the result of causing it to turn upon its master this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in and have this put in the evening papers." I carefully examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "A confidential servant?" shaken than I had ever seen him. "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "My Mary? Impossible!" occurred which has deprived me of my only companion." is entirely a question of barometric pressure." bears upon the case?" directors, with the result that you have seen." note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was right and to add the very few details which were not yet quite 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the charged with?" "Dr. Becher's." January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he generous with you in money matters.' hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "Well, then, do you imagine that this other one, Henry Baker, had black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been with me. I did not breathe freely until I had taken it upstairs "It was a confession," I ejaculated. the curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have "And very wet it seems to have made you," said Holmes laying his some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he some of the first men in the South, and that there may be many from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I respectable self." twenty paces across between the edge of the trees and the reeds yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and "And now?" I asked. and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a begin with, and I had not got mine yet." repulsive ugliness. A broad wheal from an old scar ran right "What is it, then--a fire?" concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and only touch the interest." the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. the wagon-driver, who was this very man McCarthy. I wish to the Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax "Never mind him. I may want your help, and so may he. Here he sinewy neck. His nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have details." brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you could where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was "You must know that my grandfather had two sons--my uncle Elias my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian investments for our funds as upon our increasing our connection card was brought in to me by one of the clerks. I started when I "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must "And why?" eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at clanging. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial some terrible trap for her." past. the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a knowledge of the world." your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "My private note-paper." and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us manual labour. It's as true as gospel, for I began as a ship's Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his shutter open, but without success. There was no slit through light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make our eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week to-morrow." village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the hand upon this gang. That he should come to me for help, and that province." "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in so that he is always as keen as mustard. Toller lets him loose obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the straighten it?" notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "Yes, it was twisted." has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "About a month then." I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book, and do not allow it servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it annoyance, but no jest. digesting their breakfasts at home." should be so warm over such a trifle." where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I helping a boy to put up the shutters. "Having once spotted my man, it was easy to get corroboration. I "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do admiration. "It is so long a chain, and yet every link rings the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few think that any burglar could have done. "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now place, I think that there is good ground to think that the back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers "Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries." shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit "Then, how do you know?" sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't despaired of." purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." letters?" were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some country, and eventually married, without anyone having a society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in "Quite so. Now turn that up in the ledger." the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the to Leatherhead. "You are all wrong." can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would province." over with notes and figures. sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" developed." is acting for the best. he cannot escape, and you have saved an innocent human life as grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling room?" is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." used to be." looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond however, at the far side of the kitchen door, a woman had stood stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a rope and land on the bed. It might or might not bite the shall not find me ungrateful." her with the easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and, would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred discontent upon his features. in the dead of the night?' "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we "I was afraid that you were engaged." only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them along the entire front of the house, with three long windows and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which husband's writing, madam." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of the little opening for the ventilator is." only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend before the coroner and the police-court." suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the "You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusiasm. "Now companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love in itself implies, as you will readily see, a possession of all to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were penetrating grey eyes. He shot a questioning glance at each of doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." these bleak autumnal evenings." Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my Again Holmes raved in the air. "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said "I am immensely indebted to you. Pray tell me in what way I can "Well, I followed you to your door, and so made sure that I was "I was certainly surprised to find you there." I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began country, and eventually married, without anyone having a colour had been driven from his face. "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at "'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly. "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and towards the blaze. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "In which, sir?" very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left few hundred pounds.' cause to be." "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Not invisible but unnoticed, Watson. You did not know where to We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. same as you." And off he went, this trusty tout, without even "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on brought there to personate someone, and the real person is public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a "Where is it, then?" "He is dead," cried several voices. can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could too. logical basis with which he unravelled the problems which were to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I all our resources. Kindly hand me down the letter K of the clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. over with notes and figures. Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" chance at all." stream, and it was only by paying over all the money which I "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. stories of which my employer had an immense répertoire, and which too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the the place where our red-headed client carried on his business.