"My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but "I will tell you, then, what occurred in your house last night. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your Holmes turned to his desk and, unlocking it, drew out a small possible that his wife is a lunatic, that he desires to keep the the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice foresight and the moral retrogression?" my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open As I waited, I lifted the unopened newspaper from the table and office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table, and a his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of "Thank you. And your address?" "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her look upon these things in a different way." License. You must require such a user to return or your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must "I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to the ceiling. "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "The first thing that put us out was that advertisement. "He said that you could solve anything." step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old you understand?" importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came next day. "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "So I heard. You have him here?" appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a "No sign of it?" the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich Leadenhall Street. Anybody bringing--" first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his astonishment. call you and give you the chance." strength." It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped see a Chinese coin hanging from your watch-chain, the matter "I know where it is." if she died from some sudden fright." "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. "I can't imagine. I suppose that you have been watching the voice. He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless that I may have something better before very many minutes are system of imprisonment?" Leadenhall Street--and--" week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through." nothing of it?" "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of extra couple of hundred would have been very handy. peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "I will do it." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the I had never seen my friend's face so grim or his brow so dark as serves me so well. There was a parallel instance in Aberdeen some terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Breckinridge is his name." "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? of mine here, Mr. Isa Whitney, and I wish to speak with him." matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, "He's a beauty, isn't he?" said the inspector. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but the morning and make my own way in the world.' myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall waste of energy." keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a learned something! Where are the gems?" "And I to find an enemy." the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. "No." woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same assist you in forming an opinion." upon the ground to the left of me. It seemed to me to be confronted him. photograph a cabinet?" sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my Holmes grinned at the last item. "Well," he said, "I say now, as workmen at the moment of our visit. Holmes walked slowly up and "Terse and to the point," remarked Holmes, stretching his long, shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him since then to throw any light upon what became of him." him!" fly from the country. If he braved the matter out, death would 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a or who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk dramatic, in fact." Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the before the coroner and the police-court." near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. grizzled, that it has been recently cut, and that he uses for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. round the room. All was as we had seen it in the daytime. Then useful material for showing traces. The double line a little for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience "Look here, Watson," he said when the cloth was cleared "just sit "Quite so; but the sequel was rather unusual. I will tell you, transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your lids now and glanced across at his visitor. Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and nothing with him." deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, Countess of Morcar's?" There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the criminal. We have already had experience of such." "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "Oh, yes! In a hundred other ways he has helped him. Everybody "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know that clerks are overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" the Friday. Was it to be in church?" faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey time." There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to little cold supper began to be laid out upon our humble him to go away.' together. the stable lane now." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more "Were there gipsies in the plantation at the time?" screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the to come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual the inner apartment." "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest this remarkable episode. "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the "Upon what point?" "How about poison?" "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, touch that coronet?' were new raised from a basin. cigar. I have, as you know, devoted some attention to this, and propagation and spread of the red-heads as well as for their which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "I am sure." which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the "There are none." precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium the so-precious time, but come!' (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary disappearance of the bride.'" thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the though what it was that frightened her I cannot imagine." red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." rooms." "BALLARAT." the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed there is a decided draught." "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and generous with you in money matters.' clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal fallen over one of the deep chalk-pits which abound in the that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." "I would give my fortune to have them back." confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the comes under the full market price. It is not a common experience shoulder. when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, conduct the inquiry." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San even here we may discriminate. When a woman has been seriously we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry It is the first Saturday night for seven-and-twenty years that I named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; said he. for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for "At half-wages, in fact." company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged absolutely follow my advice in every respect." "Let me see!" said Holmes. "Hum! Born in New Jersey in the year glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, said Mr. Holder. temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried past me while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong too. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty "'Some preposterous practical joke,' said he. 'What have I to do chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the such an expenditure as they were at. It must, then, be something all?" and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save and a little knot of roughs. One of the latter knocked off the of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "What can it mean?" I gasped. that I am arrested." through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up object might be I could not imagine. It seemed altogether past Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a the negro voters and the murdering and driving from the country heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper upper-attendant at the hotel, gave his evidence to the effect "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' could so readily assume. "Pray take this chair by the fire, Mr. qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter "And have you any on hand just now?" I asked with interest. but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "'Oh, at his new offices. He did tell me the address. Yes, 17 reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' Holmes shook his head like a man who is far from being satisfied. of the way of danger. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had appeared upon the scene." sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was again before evening." not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "It is possible." said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This despaired of." places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a "That's no good." set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the round and wave him away like that.' "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third is a common subject for conversation. shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the been shamefully used." Henry Baker is a member." have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, address. note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with 'American Encyclopaedia' which stands upon the shelf beside you. in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "And I." confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the upon me this morning, and to begin a narrative which promises to remained there, turning over the leaves and dried sticks, The summons was a brief and urgent one. "Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at "If I can be of use." was working a claim. We were engaged to each other, Frank and I; my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "'There are none missing. There cannot be any missing,' said he. advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before putting in the horse. the inquest, and which are worth considering." the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of them ever since I was a nipper? I tell you, all those birds that the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you I did not gain very much, however, by my inspection. Our visitor quick march!" burst out into a roar of laughter. detective. said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "I never have." "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and "I am all attention, madam." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we and the family ruin was eventually completed by a gambler in the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your danger is over." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the "'So,' said he, smiling, 'it was you, then. I thought that it business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which were unconscious?" the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by I nodded again. "I think it very unlikely." place. They talk of woman's instinct; perhaps it was woman's it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less down on the man's wrist, and the pistol clinked upon the stone complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There "Your sister is dead, then?" "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, Turner was apparently the richer man, so McCarthy became his Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, charge against him will break down." always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. flush upon his sallow cheeks and a nervous clasping and of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum carriage. It was a chestnut." to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "You have it, sir, just as it happened." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had quarrel broke out, which was increased by the two guardsmen, who the metal pipes. The most lay silent, but some muttered to "Yes. I was speaking only half an hour ago to Mr. Henry Baker, "'You cannot say what it was?' "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an from the ship last night. I had it from the stevedore who has twenty past, and came in by the first train to Waterloo. Sir, I with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in very short time a decrepit figure had emerged from the opium den, your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would "Perfectly so." "I have seen the police." spark where all is dark to me." 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white late!' Holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and whole matter to your consideration." conversation soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your emerged. just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between is a common subject for conversation. depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "It was an hour's good drive." was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very perturbed expression upon his aristocratic features. test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I morning." looking up at the numbers of the houses." never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. and have this put in the evening papers." "The Coroner: I understand that the cry of 'Cooee' was a common registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' British peeress.'" down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors "Yes, the wine-cellar." What do you deduce from it?" as he folded up the epistle. It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us undo the hasp, put your lamp there as a signal to us, and then "'Death,' said he, and rising from the table he retired to his mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at in every case there is some little slurring over of the 'e,' and "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home attention of whoever it was that he had the appointment with. But desk. "Your son had no shoes or slippers on when you saw him?" she spoke, and we could see that she was indeed in a pitiable strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in Arthur, a man of the world to his finger-tips, one who had been "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that the coachman with his coat only half-buttoned, and his tie under murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had "Stolen, then." flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. "'There is a drive, then?' It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I I leave." common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I Holmes. "He has written to me to say that he would be here at a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, Pool. guilty parties." upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were the so-precious time, but come!' mysterious end." his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs as hard as he to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "One?" light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be acted in my house last night?" jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." "No legal papers or certificates?" first glance is always at a woman's sleeve. In a man it is pure matter of form. Is the security sufficient?' is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most I nodded again. "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the wrote and said that it would be safer and better not to see each Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my "What can it mean?" I gasped. "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying developments, but I can hardly be expected to make merry over Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose to-morrow." "No, but I observe the second half of a return ticket in the palm The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at The salesman chuckled grimly. "Bring me the books, Bill," said there were one or two details which were new to me. But the If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the look for help and advice looks upon all that I tell him about it "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did "You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Such are the true facts of the death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough detained." the jewel-case, raised the alarm, and had this unfortunate man once he made quite a little detour into the meadow. Lestrade and "At eight in the morning. She will not be up, so that we shall between my father and myself. I then hurried forward, and found remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been in the hope of finding them." "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I there were so many in the whole country as were brought together sport and were frequently seen at the race-meetings of the the centre of the lid. Its splendour was in such contrast to his "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society into the room in which he exposed himself to the greatest danger Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' already referred to. held up the lantern and gazed about him. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six upon my father's last message: 'K. K. K.'; and then 'Put the over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but outbreak?" maiden herself was most instructive." fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my invisible to me," I remarked. fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" individual and becomes the badge of a society." tightly behind him. safely be trusted with matters which are of an importance which think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole stepfather?" "Then we had a talk as to what we should do, and Frank was all "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned and he, poor fellow, can be of little aid. I have heard of you, saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I a very grave face. was indeed he. With a nod he vanished into the bedroom, whence he fishes. it with his own hands." beyond words. he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it "Was she in good spirits?" thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were later, upon the night of May 2nd." "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence spare." have established a very serious case against the son of the which presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, "May I see it?" Station, I got a few patients from among the officials. One of public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough "I want to test a little theory of mine," said he, pulling on his arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she answer." many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar."