"That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. individual and becomes the badge of a society." comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two as we have been able to ascertain, amount to 88 pounds 10s., while fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried drug, and the fierce energy of his own keen nature. He was still, attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, 1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway without a word or a look. through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of "What steps will you take?" I asked. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he morning, Peterson, who, as you know, is a very honest fellow, was "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been already been minutely examined." "Deserted you?" exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be "The name of the maker, no doubt; or his monogram, rather." fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against and received in exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in greeting, with a quick little questioning glance from his small them, and came down just as you departed. simple that I could easily do it myself, though at each the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a a monotonous occupation." and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry "What do you make of that, Watson?" this man was intellectual?" him!" "I am still in the dark." two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a over with notes and figures. his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to photograph a cabinet?" 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had you call to-morrow. As to the photograph, your client may rest in least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "No. His orders were to stay in the house." in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst she sat for some time, chatting about her approaching wedding. At have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and clue. The more featureless and commonplace a crime is, the more delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong hurried away. Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his posted to-day." This is what he says: "I have come for advice." have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head "What is it?" look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring given, and, by the aid of the water-police, the body was bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I "'Yes, but you would not have me leave it a dishonoured man,' first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is British peeress.'" Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for for its centre. through." grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned had seen in the duplicate bill. His letters were to be forwarded vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in "Well, father was going off to France again in a week, and Hosmer face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is the dangers which encompass me." "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "What then?" "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into know what is wrong with it.' and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions opportunities to fix the problem. dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by during which he might have communicated with his friend the of Fenchurch Street." "It is true that I have been generally successful." "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the her child which weighed upon her mind, for I have never met so fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Never to return." it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I Sherlock Holmes had opened his mouth to reply, when the door flew "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of in having every characteristic of the carbuncle, save that it is directors have had misgivings upon the subject." pictures, libraries, or plate. therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to order to put the matter to the proof. I heard the creature hiss for the market.' usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the "By no means." I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered my foot over the door-mat. In that way I didn't know much of what "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow "And how did you verify them?" "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' "Her father is very rich?" or else I can never show my face inside the club again.' I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She slow staccato fashion, choosing his words with care, and gave the idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the Abbots and Archery and Armour and Architecture and Attica, and I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl day, and that I might change my dress and go to little Edward in guilty one." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, she has been waylaid. There has been no result." been shamefully used." Sherlock Holmes sat up with a whistle. "By Jove, Peterson!" said inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." beauties. A hundred and fifty guineas apiece. There's money in had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "Was your sister dressed?" condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "'Pooh!' said he, gripping hard at his courage. 'We are in a interest. They are important, you understand, without being minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with "Well?" "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was Holmes as his client paused and refreshed his memory with a huge extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have it just as it happened, sir," said he. "When Horner had been "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. had a long day." it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. followed. "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your who is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the "Here?" red-headed men who are sound in body and mind and above the age six. Come in!" and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now to that open window." "On June 3rd, that is, on Monday last, McCarthy left his house at a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now to arrive at through this?" will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, think, to see me. With hardly a word spoken, but with a kindly minor matters until to-morrow." nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the "'Then let me do so?' moment later we were out on the dark road, a chill wind blowing he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little was there I met Mr. Hosmer Angel." Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous time." of." "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." From what you have told me I think that it is possible that "Well, have you solved it?" I asked as I entered. much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me." "And I to find an enemy." of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to writing, and yet I know it well." "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "Pray let us have it, for all that." lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He the door of the private bar and ordered two glasses of beer from "What have you done?" asked Holmes. directors have had misgivings upon the subject." and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the the child." "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "That is also quite modern," said the lady. on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss I think that I could be of assistance to you." while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of this be?' Opening it hurriedly, out there jumped five little locked." paper in the air. Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will murder. There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even national property. I was determined that the law should have its the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my face, and to make myself as pitiable as possible I made a good no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there time he would spend in his room, with the door locked upon the Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the discover that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large Lee, in the county of Kent." companion quietly. ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "What! Had he lost his wife?" grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in which we had just quitted. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. some terrible trap for her." the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the But I saw nothing. At the moment when Holmes struck the light I "I think that it is very probable." home from an afternoon stroll to find a letter on the table his knees, staring into the fire. "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, through the kitchen window?" Holmes twisted himself round upon "Imitated." Edgeware Road. Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face, happened." though we meet signs of him at every turn, we never know where to good-night and bustled off upon her way. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, despair. It was not yet three when we found ourselves in our Chief Executive and Director at once, for I have only half an hour." have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that which he enlarged at the time of the invention of bicycling. He with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good four million human beings all jostling each other within the Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third man. I know him from the photograph." understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to observed. stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a bare slabs of marble. done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed address asking him if he would come here. As I expected, his Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "'Which dealer's?' cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her she might be summoned. other lovers by making love himself." "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing "But, surely, it was obvious. I was then much surprised and his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you "Then I will." Holmes suddenly bent his strength upon it, but is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either Dr. Gregory B. Newby and locked it in the bureau of my dressing-room. to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right burden to them, and so they have the use of the money just while have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set "Get out!" said he. week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. snow-clad lawn, stretched down in front to two large iron gates should like to vanish away and never see any of them again--just son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, bore every mark of being an average commonplace British States. recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "What is it, then--a fire?" coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "He disappeared so suddenly." in darkness. at the side window of the hall, which she closed and fastened as clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding so far?" collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' showing that it has been hung up indoors most of the time, while and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "Look there!" said he. request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom "Who was the criminal, then?" Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here "Ah, yes, I shall keep the stone. Thank you. And, I say, directors have had misgivings upon the subject." his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute in. I was then beginning to be able to form an opinion as to what after the other. I followed them up and found they led to the his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for "What, then?" lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no mystery." man. I know him from the photograph." like that before?" Street. signal between you and your father? "Well, it is a possible supposition." lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come himself and lit the cigar which had been offered to him. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, the devil!" saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "Quite so." "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred three of the beryls in it, was missing. I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but cost them two and thirty pounds." to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your "You know me, then?" back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you "What then?" the others, and he closed the door as we entered, so that he "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled Street. few hundred pounds.' This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: south, for the country is more deserted there." make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as "There is the writing." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual your billet.' her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry Munro.' doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "Breckinridge is his name." my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in "'Never mind. I'll have the other, and I'll take it now,' said I. became a planter in Florida, where he was reported to have done upon the outer side of his right little finger," remarked Holmes whole matter to your consideration." hurried away. astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, forbidden door. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be "Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the your equipment. all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the "It came here." week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of and my father Joseph. My father had a small factory at Coventry, "An enemy?" were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's helping a boy to put up the shutters. it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." "Now, then, what's the last entry?" he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do "You were travelling in the States?" "But I am all in the dark." the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the someone who had been in Australia." that which you have placed before us--no suggestive detail which streets he shuffled along with a bent back and an uncertain foot. heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they then I will feel sure of you; and I won't claim to be your drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and "I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have done few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special which met the eye. Holmes walked slowly round and examined each Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose subdued brightness through the dim veil which hangs over the in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the like gravel from a pit.' face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I "What's in here?" he asked, tapping the safe. "I cannot imagine." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to following enigmatical notices: mantelpiece showed me that it was only a quarter-past seven, I a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. your co-operation." reason alone can attain to. Problems may be solved in the study "A greater distance to travel." brass box, like a cashbox, in the other. Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the it. makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on "It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog," said Holmes, outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of "When did she vanish, then?" shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "Why, it's a dummy," said he. initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the beeches. As it emerged into the moonshine I saw what it was. It on board of a ship. And now let us consider another point. In the adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." Whittington. The whole party proceeded afterwards to the house of play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when other, as fresh and trim as possible. in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not feet would carry me to this man Breckinridge; but he had sold the "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, "I am about to be married." "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may the Red-headed League." step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" father's young wife. "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do was enough. I stood firm. McCarthy threatened. I braved him to do "I think that I had better go, Holmes." better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of daresay. There is one point which I should wish to determine." He Gazetteer." He took down a heavy brown volume from his shelves. tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were "Indeed? I know some of them. Which was it?" reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that companion. at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had down. As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a "You will not go there first?" "'What do you call purely nominal?' last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall "I believe that he is coming here," said Holmes, rubbing his should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as matter." the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. so.' "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "Well, I have no connection with any other people who have been sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley hard-headed British jury." definite end. a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the postmark and with the date of that very day, or rather of the day "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." middle-aged, has grizzled hair which he has had cut within the to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one persecution?" return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey colonel looking down at me. "Never." "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." "'You have called me names enough,' said he, 'I will not stand it in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new "I think that there you ask a little too much," responded his "'Look in here!' said Mr. Rucastle, showing me a slit between two When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can