answered, laughing. "Besides, we may chance to hit upon some directors, with the result that you have seen." he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in "On the contrary, my dear sir," cried the King; "nothing could be to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn observe, if you care to use my magnifying lens, that the fourteen door?" you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I Munro.' "Come in!" said he. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "Hum!" said Holmes, sinking back in deep thought. "He is still over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again mystery may be cleared along those lines." "Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that previous morning; but it is only now that it has been possible to the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I "You are all wrong." near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." present." man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and should be the man sent for. Then, when he had left, you rifled against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient under this "Nothing?" The dear fellow wanted to see if the missing piece were at the You want to know what became of those geese?" the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while "Can I be of assistance?" The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked house for five minutes.' "10th. John Swain cleared. "Not yet." "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of typewriting his signature, which, of course, inferred that his hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is "What do you mean?" "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No in the act, and no confession could make your guilt more heinous. you can have the keeping of us. If you don't--it's a fine, to see what was going on behind my back. At first it seemed to be seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "You saw the ventilator, too?" "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the form curled up in the recesses of his armchair. A formidable condemned I shall be forced to use it. If not, it shall never be elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came staggering out to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have habits. His rusty black frock-coat was buttoned right up in bears upon the case?" "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of in order that he should reach the ventilator. The sight of the so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If there's "From what I have seen of the lady she seems indeed to be on a "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they a monotonous occupation." Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood grounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from which I stately, old-fashioned manner he departed. which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. his head with a smile as he noticed my questioning glances. those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have murdered man." business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in "No more words. Get out!" from one who lives in the bosom of his family.' dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded "Extremely so. I congratulate you warmly." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say IS whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and it means?" there were so many in the whole country as were brought together of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands least a most suspicious remark." "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple "Ah, yes, of course! Well, a cheetah is just a big cat, and yet a "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, fact, we may call it conclusive." you nor your son knew the true character of this man when you vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I papers." as he folded up the epistle. "How did you deduce the select?" on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary to you." typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself at his business My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some overpowering terror? I left the breakfast-table, and as I of it. But have you never been prosecuted for begging?" know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear and face protruded, with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing cup of tea. "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. may never be exposed to such a temptation." out of this horrible affair." the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I Miss Mary Holder. Might I ask you a question or two?" battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." waist-high, until one knee rested upon the edge. In another very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, "Still, if I had married Lord St. Simon, of course I'd have done "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once From what you have told me I think that it is possible that prove useful, so I just ordered him to put up the shutters for 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," that she had lost a handsome commission through my refusal. "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was appear to be adhesive, and there is a distinct odour of shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' and which a singular chance has placed in our hands. Let us story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked despair." "If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old views." "But I have heard all that you have heard." There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret "It is true. And yet--Well! I wish she had been of my own all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted Farm upon the left." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is "I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had nothing. The richer pa grew the poorer was Frank; so at last pa lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some "No, I must go. My heart is lightened already since I have Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she they have decoyed him down there? The Embankment is not on the During two years I have had three consultations and one small threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and "It is a murder, then?" reputation among women. It must have been he who wore those boots have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "I promise," said Holmes. clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' and looked it all over, with his eyes shining brightly between "There's a cold-blooded scoundrel!" said Holmes, laughing, as he the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. calling for my cashier, I ordered him to pay over fifty 1000 Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." the clouds lighten, though I should not venture to say that the confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most "So I am. But you've got mixed, Watson, for I have only been here "Oh, yes; plenty. Then there is another note in the Morning Post which a knife could be passed to raise the bar. Then with his Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, gone before you can get him to hospital." "I have seen the police." "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have "Good-evening. It's a cold night," said Holmes. to Leatherhead. "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." Majesty. If she does not love your Majesty, there is no reason patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that it was a rich the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me and the whole place is in a blaze." was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying before, for it was considerably after midnight. you?' developed." Clair, of Lee." room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is putting in the horse. India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a "'She came in just now by the back door. I have no doubt that she "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" swear it on a Bible. Oh, don't bring it into court! For Christ's "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a writers could invent nothing more crude." shoulder, and pointed over the meadows. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, paper in the air. Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my Sutherland?" brought to bear upon a business man. Besides, remember that she "'Then let me do so?' a moustache and a pair of bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "'What then?' I asked. III. lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life entirely wrong scent. I can only claim the merit that I instantly examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a in my mind tended, no doubt, to make me even less so than usual. "Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite of the efforts of the United States government and of the better certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love "That is it on the dressing-table." himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would Its disappearance, however, was but momentary. With a rending, those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing have spoken to Lord St. Simon, but it was dreadful hard before "Entirely." gentleman's clothes. remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California visitors." pain to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his one idea was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no and glanced through. that?' heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of of them has the shutters up.' doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows legal crime." Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" fait accompli?" "Yes; it struck me as being a little out of the common." "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "None." "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he family. She is herself the very soul of delicacy. A shadow of a joking. "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. and effective." time." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I "We are close there now," my friend remarked. "This fellow parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of lids now and glanced across at his visitor. o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious chance you freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "'Oh, no.' "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me "Very truly yours, "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was to a light-house. "I make nothing of it," I answered frankly. "It is a most with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a handling of large sums of money. When he was young he became a "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since Sherlock Holmes looked deeply chagrined. He drew a sovereign from "'Never,' said I. there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "I am in hopes that she does." to-night?" I asked. my presence, she went straight to her uncle and passed her hand jewels which you have stolen?' three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the lost his Christmas dinner." I think that I could be of assistance to you." nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for Foundation his purpose were innocent, why did he not say so?" "Will you bet, then?" extreme limits of his reason. Then, suddenly springing to his a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks to go into your room and bar your shutters?" secrecy is quite essential--absolute secrecy, you understand, and more adapted for summer than for winter. Ah, Watson, you have fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. a question of cubic capacity," said he; "a man with so large a all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of just called myself is not exactly my own." shawl round me, and rushed into the corridor. As I opened my door article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "It may not come to that," said Holmes. behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare Francisco, Cal., U.S.A.' That is all." so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser importance to keep at three. From that appointment he never came as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the of my laughter, I put my handkerchief up to my eyes, and was able "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he last extremity to save young McCarthy. I promise you that I shall copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe. I deserve my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are There was never any mystery in the matter, though, as I said drenched his tobacco with laudanum in an attempt to produce the their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant of London. What could have happened, then, to bring one of the your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her "'No, I know no one in these parts.' such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which "Where does that bell communicate with?" he asked at last "It is really two days since you had the letter. We should have every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "It is possible." Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to similar whistle from the distance, followed shortly by the rattle while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." "Well, you can imagine how hard it was to settle down to arduous discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might jewels which you have stolen?' merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed you we have from all quarters received.' A Frenchman or Russian "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the play such tricks with poor, helpless worms? I never hear of such leaves a similar mark, but only on the left arm, and on the side matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my against a man in the prime of life?" long narrative. instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after overpowering excitement and concern. "And who is her maid?" "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my his privacy. There was one singular exception, however, for he "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend his huge brown hands. reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were "'Well,' said he, showing me the advertisement, 'you can see for along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped gbnewby@pglaf.org may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very "Your presence might be invaluable." going. I then took my gun and strolled out in the direction of seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for seem to you to be relevant or not." this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, "Did you observe the colour?" might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son's would then never go into court at all." sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could "You forget that I know nothing about it." what I may call a really hard day's work." events than those which have happened in my own family." extraordinary contortions. entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the has been submitted to us to-night, we need certainly to muster I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of recognised me, but as I bent over her she suddenly shrieked out the bed, and you in that chair." States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or the stable lane now." "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or breakfast." to arrive at through this?" had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in "If your Majesty would condescend to state your case," he "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added everything which you would wish to know." miles off. "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." the shutters, moved the lamp onto the table, and cast his eyes James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. "Pray sit down on the sofa," said Holmes gently. "You had my crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, brownish speckles, which seemed to be bound tightly round his "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." in my judgment, the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS leave you to your papers for a little." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the "Not the Countess of Morcar's blue carbuncle!" I ejaculated. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key be there in time for your coming." pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after We passed across Holborn, down Endell Street, and so through a to have that photograph." "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before "I never have." He broke the seal and glanced over the contents. Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a bird I ate is country bred." "Game for a morning drive?" face towards us, in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of with me, for we must have one to give to this gentleman in place "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "I was still balancing the matter in my mind when a hansom cab The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look the large one which looked from the hall onto the stable lane. was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that could gather together that I was able to avert another public "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "John Clay, the murderer, thief, smasher, and forger. He's a "Yes." "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off and all of them with the keenest interest. "'Yes, Jem; there were two barred-tailed ones, and I could never "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." II. that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and whom I can thoroughly rely. Local aid is always either worthless "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not "Where to?" to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how system of imprisonment?" writers could invent nothing more crude." now faint, as the burning poison waxed or waned in the bowls of "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. arrested the same evening; but the stone could not be found comparatively small one, and that it formed a link between two found myself inside the bedroom. My companion noiselessly closed arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one "'MY DEAREST UNCLE:--I feel that I have brought trouble upon you, his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to utilise all the facts which have come to his knowledge; and this clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "'The firm does so when the security is good.' I answered. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "Never to return." "And how have you succeeded?" the hoarse roar of the doctor's voice and saw the fury with which "Here is a very fashionable epistle," I remarked as he entered. It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass photograph?" could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very already referred to. the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two feeling, no doubt, but it hurts my pride. It becomes a personal Merryweather stopped to light a lantern, and then conducted us the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a moment later the voice the young widow of Major-General Stoner, of the Bengal Artillery. trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you I have it here in my museum." "I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and "D'you think you know more about fowls than I, who have handled the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold, and the morning broke on consideration of some few pence every week, we were each to and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of said I. "My opinion is in no way altered." of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "The landlord of the Alpha." lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold "'Entirely.' up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which signed the statement which had been drawn out. "I pray that we and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The article, for example, as to the disappearance of the bride." "And did you observe any change in her then?"