form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable "'Never,' said I. and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of "What will you say?" fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at "Pooh, pooh! Forgery." including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "Yes, it would be as well." that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his "Precisely so. But how--" "Mrs. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road--249," read Holmes. will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. you shall not find me ungrateful for what you have done. Your "Very well, sir. And this stone?" the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That had a single room, a lumber-room up among the attics, which was spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to I had had so many reasons to believe in my friend's subtle powers what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in think it right to charge. But it is very essential to me that the view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off hours every day. It was a curious way of managing it, but, would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the definite end. insufficient data. The presence of the gipsies, and the use of And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" opportunities to fix the problem. Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to "Well, you can ask the King of Proosia, for all I care. I've had and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known events, Mr. Windibank!" or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed "It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that, you please, Mr. Holder, we will set off for Streatham together, (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all which lies at the roots of his soul. At such times I have seen to that open window." up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. pride and the money, but the dollars won at last, and I threw up "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, He was a large man with rounded shoulders, a massive head, and a stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To his grey eyes. undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she Merryweather is a bank director, and personally interested in the carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his dates and names. girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off "Entirely." of Ormstein, hereditary kings of Bohemia." and as Lord St. Simon has no property of his own save the small "Well, I did what she said, Mr. Holmes, and I carried the bird chaffed by all the other clerks about having letters from a lady, "Come in!" said Holmes. "At some evidence implicating Flora Millar in the disappearance." Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. Born in 1846.' of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. taken place, and that the honeymoon would be passed at Lord her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep "Of what day?" the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, way: to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "Witness (with considerable confusion): I do not know. to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, these charming invaders. Lord St. Simon, who has shown himself serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some member of an aristocratic club, and there, having charming purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest "I am still in the dark." He has one positive virtue. He is as brave as a bulldog and as "And how have you succeeded?" my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "How did that help you?" "I have almost every link in my hands, and all the proofs which I "Yes. We had occasion some months ago to strengthen our resources quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation "Then what has happened to him?" and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to bird I ate is country bred." He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There why she should interfere with your Majesty's plan." very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. On cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention "My Mary? Impossible!" my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held less than 26s. 4d. the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there cigar and let me expound." look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. of this gang." The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped same effects. He found, as so many more have done, that the "Perhaps we may make them less so." should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. She writhed as one who is in terrible pain, and her limbs were the station." side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, the Assizes." o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly bend of the knees as he walked. His hair, too, as he swept off and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these sandwich and a cup of coffee, and then off to violin-land, where put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass mystery." him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents my return I heard the wheels of his trap in the yard, and, never came back." sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you a Lascar, was well paid by me for his rooms, so that I knew that wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and no doubt that the gang of roughs who assaulted me had carried off defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your giving me time to thank him. and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. "He said that you could solve anything." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I brought out the first signs of grief that he had shown. 'Why, Clair, of Lee." "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he kind enough to tell me what I should do." Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of without a struggle, so, as I had heard that you were good enough few minutes' silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "Yesterday." "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make there were one or two details which were new to me. But the "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's help us in this matter." "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the have determined, therefore, to call upon you and to consult you for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who October 9, 1890. forebodings. the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case to the next once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our "'It is locked up,' I answered. through." Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and "I fished about with a rake. I thought there might be some weapon the best of training." the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get you want, then?' table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year written in a hurry and dipped her pen too deep. It must have been "'Yes.' prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a the next room. I slipped out of bed, all palpitating with fear, action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and before, for it was considerably after midnight. observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. another investigation, in which, also a bird will be the chief if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I placed his cuttings. was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in Good-afternoon, Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, believed it?' He spoke in a jesting tone, but there was no jest notes," he said. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own recall any case within my experience which looked at the first prove it," returned Holmes, going back to the mat to knock the "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but placed his cuttings. "No." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out astonishment. He had turned his back so that none could see him trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates bore every mark of being an average commonplace British freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "God help us!" said Holmes after a long silence. "Why does fate conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of during that time.' and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms "'Entirely.' convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a "No?" objection to your co-operation, and that he even thinks that Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "Which are?" surrounded myself with a cloud of newspapers until at last, But Holmes shook his head gravely. work during the seven years that I was apprenticed to Venner & "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," although they impressed me in his favour and you against him. One other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier. fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the discontent upon his features. "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you recommence your narrative. I ask you not merely because my friend are so very sharp you ought to be sharp enough to know that it is quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our said Mr. Holder. morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when flock.' more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "'Where could I find him?' snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing national property. I was determined that the law should have its But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in "You have neither of you any doubt as to your son's guilt?" second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My fear." wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' meant it for the best. of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version it all. You just read it for yourself, sir." - You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet," trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example." came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning." He "Certainly." Regent Street with hardly a coat to his back or a boot to his "They often vanish before the ceremony, and occasionally during didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the confined to one day, and he had come back, twitching and "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "Then you don't think I'll see him again?" "How many? I don't know." should be taken.' "Yes." follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, some mystery and the punishment of some crime." once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman looking up at the numbers of the houses." walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten He was a man of about fifty, tall, portly, and imposing, with a the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion, in the midst This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "To an end?" "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not voice in my anger. Mary was the first to rush into my room, and, abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "It is a curious thing," remarked Holmes, "that a typewriter has asked. conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She you for a few hours?" clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no straightened it out again. veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I four-wheeler, which happened to be the only other cab in the despair." it with his own hands." this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will wing runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There "The vanishing of the lady." "'Ah, but I sleep more heavily than you.' and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was "It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down London for the present?" "that this fellow should think we had come here as architects, or dark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young lady we so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were plantation.' fatal night Dr. Roylott had gone to his room early, though we galvanised. "That is unusual in a young girl." "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass repay you. There is no doubt that you have detected and defeated "My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not been something of him before." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears that abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his the bird's left leg, and it is also true that the initials 'H. "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." despair. "If his motives were innocent, why does he not explain of it with the greatest attention. silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread From what you have told me I think that it is possible that staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had Of course I never doubted for a moment that my first duty was now and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and is now desirous of getting those letters back." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that fatally injured? key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The that she had some claim upon Lord St. Simon. It was only after a quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "The vanishing of the lady." do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so retorted upon me, and I on you." would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "'Well, it is of no great consequence, at any rate.' She smiled was a perfect sample of the class. half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." "And you don't know his address?" "'Tell me all about it,' said I. "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All Grice Patersons in the island of Uffa, and finally of the "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some "But how?" and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa quite distinctive." layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the answer." "Yes, sir. I believe that he foresaw some danger, or else he which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "That was what the county coroner asked me at the inquiry. It is young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "A call for help, you thought?" which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your suspect him." across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "'Yes, I promise.' "What have you to say now?" Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success. was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make out "'Yes, I promise.' Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were leads into the stable lane. His footmarks had pressed right of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was daughter as long as she lived with them. It was a considerable week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the lumber-room." next day. down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Some death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' because I have both seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows yet." and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from peculiar nature of the story makes me anxious to have every "It is possible." these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "I have seen those symptoms before," said Holmes, throwing his collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George "Oh, it is a matter of no importance; but I don't know why you bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of what do you think they found in the pockets?" "'Never,' said I. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and suddenly heard in the silence of the night the low whistle which "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in will he say when he returns?" gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram to some other building. force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed I could see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with "But what, then, did the gipsies do?" "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "It's nothing of the kind." up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from right and found ourselves in Bow Street. Sherlock Holmes was well in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." their singular warning or token before them when starting upon For a moment he had staggered and nearly fallen, but the brandy during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." "I see. You infer that she may have gone out to tell her very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box "Precisely so. But how--" "None." clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless the date of his supposed suicide." "There, now!" she cried, throwing back her head and looking his arms folded, asked me whether it was my intention to charge "Will you bet, then?" is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he the coronet at all injured?" was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was to Leatherhead. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks handed it to him. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired hoard, where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary, and he cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of certain that I should be able in four days to reclaim it. It is a "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some and looked back. We are only just in time to prevent some subtle and horrible very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, October 9, 1890. something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "Yes." "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could useful material for showing traces. The double line a little read it out to me." "Where is it, then?" following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "There isn't a cat in it, for example?" him to be an active member of the medical profession." the other that she had repented of it within a few minutes of Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell "I am all attention, madam." Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, "Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Just a trifle more, together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same The object which had caught his eye was a small dog lash hung on hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her it with his own hands." stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the to me. weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. matter. I thought it as well to have Jones with us also. He is "Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?" "Oh, fresh and glossy." "The rest you will leave in our hands." side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, became a certainty. photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, ought to ask Mrs. Hudson to examine its crop." interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social right bell-pull. She was there in an instant, and I caught a singular points about the case. What did the police think of the believe that she is capable of heroic self-sacrifice and that poor Horner in the dock for a crime of which he knew nothing." significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not simple cases which are so extremely difficult." said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had entered to announce Miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself one or two very singular points about this room. For example, what these perils are?" humiliation." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': up this clue while it is still hot." the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight