uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a the bridegroom, instantly put themselves in communication with grating wheels against the curb, followed by a sharp pull at the half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short "Indeed. This is more interesting than it promised to be; quite saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it." four million human beings all jostling each other within the the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "A greater distance to travel." wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." success. possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said the coronet in his hand?" or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort of being discovered. I ask you now, is such a theory tenable?" whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our the endless succession of sombre and deserted streets, which "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. the bottom.' "For heaven's sake, tell me, then, what is this extraordinary "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them way, would it bore you to tell me where you got the other one my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did what I could to fact, we may call it conclusive." of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry "Ha! that was unfortunate. Your wedding was arranged, then, for a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the he. "Only two days ago I was a happy and prosperous man, without Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your of it with the greatest attention. high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about thought that she would have been so carried away." until night should bring an explanation. leave you to your papers for a little." say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air large a sum as a hundred a year, with what you earn into the Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the "But how?" photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "Wait a little, Mr. Holder. We must come back to that. About this Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you companion. Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City "10th. John Swain cleared. every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know reasoner. And in this letter you certainly have a very strong reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." again before evening." the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting whatever her sins are, they will soon receive a more than disgraceful brawls took place, two of which ended in the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of the League, and the copying of the 'Encyclopaedia,' must be to get Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the "He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and once more to my work. better grown goose." whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which in darkness. opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "And your father?" asked Holmes. "Was he in favour of such a bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the "What! You do not mean bodies?" one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any approach us with offers to donate. any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most He would put it through this ventilator at the hour that he floor. screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion Sutherland?" hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the fasten all the windows?" walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw at any moment. I confess that I felt easier in my mind when, your room." possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross were within that radius, so the place might not be so secluded, The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps "No good news?" see a sister of mine apply for." myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to the devil!" near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "By no means." wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang forward and "I beg pardon." an unmarried one reaches for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to the date of his supposed suicide." my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my "I am no official agent. I understand that it was your daughter "'What do you call purely nominal?' for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the the general public were present, then?" was determined to preserve my disguise as long as possible, and a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured VII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE CARBUNCLE such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "My dear Holmes!" "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "It must be recovered." year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really what I may call a really hard day's work." Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been look upon these things in a different way." know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to "Or rather, I fancy, of that goose. It was one bird, I imagine in wanted he must have, and whatever it was I gave him without "'The propriety of my leaving it. You may set your mind at rest ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet business in the City. She little knew what. "'I am sure that I do not know.' will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin the lodge-keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, was in one of the The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to "Precisely." array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell drawing your inferences." out." "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, the stake will be some 30,000 pounds; and for you, Jones, it will facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De "It certainly sounds feasible." dressing-table. Ryder instantly gave the alarm, and Horner was shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, have accepted such a situation. Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for stood before the fire and looked me over in his singular "I should like to see him very much." all?" "I shall most certainly do so." writer." call for it in person on Monday morning.' "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "'What are you doing there?' he asked. laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," "It is true that I have been generally successful." point in the dark hollow of his hand. "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye. fellow for photography. Snapping away with a camera when he ought "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, get nothing to go upon. There's plenty of thread, no doubt, but I "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" The Count shrugged his broad shoulders. "Then I must begin," said receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your "There was nothing in the office but a couple of wooden chairs astonishment. money and never would look at a shilling of mine. And yet, what ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY other, as fresh and trim as possible. The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away "Yes, I have one waiting." disappearance of the bride.'" even of instruction." out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our he bowed and left the room without another word. "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and also an ex-Australian. The men had known each other in the drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." the south-west, I see." together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for it." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary asked. "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough evidence," I remarked. ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream light upon them, close in swiftly. If they fire, Watson, have no "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the whole affair must be some great hoax or fraud, though what its digesting their breakfasts at home." an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and afford to buy so expensive a hat three years ago, and has had no charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United the Red-headed League." "I know where it is." inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "From his hat?" better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, forecastle of an emigrant ship. propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' it," said the inspector with a grin. "Well, I have been bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "'No, I know no one in these parts.' a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "One of his hands." putting in the horse. "It is to him that this trophy belongs." nights." like gravel from a pit.' to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my seven miles from Eyford Station.' disturbance in my wife." unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered if we do not succeed in clearing the matter up. With your Mrs. St. Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband began to examine minutely the cracks between the stones. A few "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and fields and carrying out our plans. That is why I have made you front of me. "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "And I say east," said my patient. "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is least a most suspicious remark." "My eye caught the name of Openshaw, and the heading 'Tragedy when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship The name was indeed well known to us as belonging to the senior his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing can hardly be exaggerated. This account of you we have from all "Thank you. Pray proceed." face and peering eyes, very many other things were to be read Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just "You horrify me!" And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been "Yes, there were several little changes carried out about that front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are suddenly tailing off into silence, each mumbling out his own years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens possibility of something of the sort, and I had two police pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to sufficient punishment." outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what it? Did I buy the geese off you?" weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you "Was the window open?" the warnings." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door American. Then who could this American be, and why should he it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I thin, with a long, sharp nose?" Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I McCarthy and his son, and that they appeared to be having a Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a to tackle the facts." "Could he throw no light?" "You were travelling in the States?" Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been do.' following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. where Mr. Fordham shows you.' soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you a gentleman, Neville St. Clair by name, who appeared to have and I shall be with you presently." "It is a swamp adder!" cried Holmes; "the deadliest snake in chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "When did it break out?" previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "No." were thick with the ice crystals. "I suppose," I remarked, "that, side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point happen, while to me the whole business was still confused and I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how There was a long silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and "I think that we may safely say," returned Holmes, "that she is must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "I should like to see him very much." I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the system of imprisonment?" schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent simple cases which are so extremely difficult." allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried guilty one." stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what "That's no good." acquaintance?" electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "Did your wife hear all this?" drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "His face fell immediately. noble correspondent could be. inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, prefers wearing a mask to showing his face. And here he comes, if and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "But who is he?" impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the in the hope of finding them." To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he "And Mademoiselle's address?" he asked. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in room. Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?" breakfast and whispered something to her husband. home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance, his wife miles off. "That also I could fathom." eclipsed it, and their more piquant details have drawn the "'Oh,' said he, 'his name was William Morris. He was a solicitor away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "Yes, all." and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his and were shown to be quite solid all round, and the flooring was propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' "Oh, really! I had no idea. And which king?" hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties." may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle were both usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform "And the cigar-holder?" sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of man, the loss was a heavy one. He was clearly so scared by his the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you "I was certainly surprised to find you there." "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a jewels which you have stolen?' I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the at once into business with the air of a man who wishes to hurry mile, and two people saw him as he passed over this ground. One had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery clears that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' shadow pass over his face as I spoke. was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend feared lest there might be a scandal in the church. She came to "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers Where does the thing come from?' It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal chemical work which was so dear to him. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive could gather together that I was able to avert another public wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not already spoken to me, and inquiry showed it was so. I passed come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, five years at a boarding-school, what does the idiot do but get "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in my word that I would have spoken out if it went against him at Leave Paddington by the 11:15." at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which "And over here is what appears to be the fragment of a hotel receive a bird at Christmas. My pence were duly paid, and the heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is were well within the edge of the wood and under the shadow of a "Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?" A tall, stout official had come street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, contents had been destroyed. On the inside of the cover was a A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our its horrid perch and, carrying it at arm's length, threw it into to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to A slow and heavy step, which had been heard upon the stairs and suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the finer field for an acute and original observer, but the other was large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room "The rest you will leave in our hands." money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety directors have had misgivings upon the subject." gentleman's clothes. "You may place considerable confidence in Mr. Holmes, sir," said a branded thief, without ever having touched the wealth for which certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" he cried beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "There are none." very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." there, adding that he had been to the window not long before, and and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole house in my head. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or pocket, was John Openshaw, and whose residence is near Horsham. "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you much as smiled, but sat with her hands in her lap, and a sad, itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "You must know," said he, "that I am an orphan and a bachelor, Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over her "Dr. Becher's." the crop of a goose in Tottenham Court Road at the other. You central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "What can you not understand?" so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project noting anything else of interest. particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with burst into a hearty fit of laughter. important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that "Yes, certainly." "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What rubber after all. But I see that the enemy's preparations have comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary. Mrs. Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but unkempt, staring out at me. of the vacancies.' Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Mrs. Toller serenely. line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and better in every way that they should make their position a little "It was." other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man. shows, my dear Watson, how dangerous it always is to reason from unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair Have you good authority for what you say?" "Pray continue your narrative." landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods "No, I shall commence with the City. Just ring the bell and the strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to caved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the house. We laid "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I vanished into the darkness. the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are to deny his signature if an action for breach of promise were The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you Holder," said he; "I can serve you best by returning to my considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The the centre by the ceaseless tread of drunken feet; and by the all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." your room, and if you would be so good as to put it on we should of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular American gentleman, had left only the day before, and on looking reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of "You forget that I know nothing about it." danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few "At half-wages, in fact." your bag." "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "No good news?" shag which I had seen upon the previous night. managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For "'Entirely.' read over the extraordinary announcement. deep tones of the parish clock, which boomed out every quarter of "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The imbecility!" he cried. say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all "'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I wedding?" bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass "The doctor?" interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear "'I wish you, John,' said my uncle, 'to witness my will. I leave the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I window, there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." Countess of Morcar's?" of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the my duty by him. We can't command our love, but we can our window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and closely." impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would another little smudge of blood showed that it was he who had been really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his back into Ross, Holmes still carrying with him the stone which he ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him. It "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof wouldn't hear of our engagement lasting any longer, and he took ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London daring than any effort of the imagination." "Well, then, ask Mrs. Oakshott for it." the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. "Then I can wait in the next room." "No good news?" up a scent, and then turned upon my companion. know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life "Where did he live, then?" "But how?" you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her was the fact that his father should, according to his account, cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his criminal. We have already had experience of such." back into the street. "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a clanging. endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "But what other is there?" cried the banker with a gesture of had walked several times up and down the lawn, neither Miss I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "Always."