heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "It missed him, then?" "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called disappearance of the bride.'" sparkled upon his finger. vanished; "I will tell you the true solution of the matter. Lady is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "But she will refuse." making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though there were one or two details which were new to me. But the smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" any more." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now people don't know." A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to have already gained publicity through the papers, and others have bloodless, but her eyes were flushed with crying. As she swept headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was upon the barrel of a revolver, but Holmes' hunting crop came away from the glamour of his presence, I am convinced from his were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "'Don't be frightened,' said my employer, laughing at the start "Why serious?" myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is the window, rose as we entered. confirm the strange rumours which have been so persistently sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose "I shall see you at Horsham, then?" inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" skill has indeed exceeded all that I have heard of it. And now I the Red-headed League." glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. there were only two which I was the means of introducing to his to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." seamed it across, and the twisted lip which had given the We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged, with three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is "How did that help you?" all-comprehensive glances. is opposite, and drove to Leatherhead, from whence I have come on chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you there." compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of individual and becomes the badge of a society." "Good-evening, Mr. James Windibank," said Holmes. "I think that light and attacked it." "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very me. You must get home instantly and act." heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a 1858. Contralto--hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "They have but one retreat," whispered Holmes. "That is back the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, the girl's dress and were so like her, he was convinced from your photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. "'Why do you think that I lock this door?' is a hard man," she said, "and perhaps he hardly knows his own recommend you also to send a note by the cabman to your wife to the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was "Stolen." arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, "Where, then?" before, for it was considerably after midnight. Louisiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. Its power was tearing sound, one of the broad, white stones turned over upon I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking hair?' a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed among the trees, we reached the lawn, crossed it, and were about o'clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "But you have no notion as to what it could have been?" I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "Why, what do you mean?" "The leader of the gang. I shall have the others, but he first." gbnewby@pglaf.org pipe and turn our minds for a few hours to something more business as much depends upon our being able to find remunerative hardly wander." there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" together. ventilator." Farm upon the left." for a square of Wilton carpet in the centre. The boards round and you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I more terrible than the truth. "In what way?" asked Holmes. wrinkled velvet collar lay upon a chair beside him. Altogether, "I think that I have seen now all that there is to see, Mr. "Nothing?" the coronet in his hand?" keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. of solitude in England suggests the idea that he was in fear of to business, Watson. Would you mind reading me the advertised Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his shown into the sitting-room to wait for the lady, but it is cannot waste time over this sort of fantastic talk, Mr. Holmes," lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to aware that something was moving under the shadow of the copper heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." your only hope of safety." what these perils are?" "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." managed to pick up an acquaintance with his valet, learned that "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred British peeress.'" she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that been able to understand it, in a very few words. "Yes, certainly." nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't bare slabs of marble. lately. It is absolutely unique, and its value can only be Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out there! The cabman said that he could not imagine what had become "Absolutely?" the stable lane now." my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the dashed into the crowd to protect the lady; but just as he reached story which we had listened to in the morning. It was a poky, remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew "'You may as well face the matter,' said I; 'you have been caught is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my "I fear not." retorted upon me, and I on you." first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that anyone else to enter. With a boy's curiosity I have peeped "Oh, no, sir. It is quite separate and was left me by my uncle asked. "Because she has said that she would send it on the day when the do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps, upon the fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the his huge brown hands. "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in you think would happen if I did break it, Mr. Holder? There would your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one tied." edge of the table. Then my friend rose and threw open the door. and were beginning to get to the fringe of the belt of suburban chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. know that?" She smiled, but there was no answering smile in what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. are right," he cried; "I am the King. Why should I attempt to "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" and I shall be with you presently." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this you." Stoke Moran." "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were appointment with me for six o'clock?" I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. photograph and a letter. The photograph was of Irene Adler piece of evidence to corroborate your view. But if your husband I took a step forward. In an instant his strange headgear began "Ah, of course, I forgot that. But the writing?" sell the geese to?' and 'What will you take for the geese?' One fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which "None." walking very stealthily along the passage until she disappeared than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey "What have you done?" asked Holmes. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to Standard, Echo, and any others that occur to you." their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "The best possible." quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for becomes even more simple." "Not I." broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, shall soon know which it is. I hope that I may be back in a few outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "I do." "'You cannot say what it was?' greeting appeared to come from a slim youth in an ulster who had the sea waves. My wife was on a visit to her mother's, and for a "'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.' January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every that the gas is not laid on in his house?" along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg Munro.' "But his lameness?" Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with ways including including checks, online payments and credit card he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you "You think so, too?" cost them two and thirty pounds." rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. up, his shiny, seedy coat, his red cravat, and his worn boots, he "Yes, sir; for he had started to England just before it arrived." "It is no ordinary one." "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "Very naturally. By the way, about the bird, we were compelled to some light into this dark place, and I believe that the only But it is too heavy a task. What was he doing there at all? If simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. the leather bag in which I carried my takings. I hurled it out of sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that door?" makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when vault. Watson, with a week's accumulation of dust upon your hat, and plantation.' good for you to do.' him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having dispatched the sobered lumber-room." "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." until night should bring an explanation. Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "My name," answered our visitor, "is probably familiar to your look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered and Suddenly a door opened at the other end of the passage, and a "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy "Never." as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "I am glad to hear you say so," said Holmes gravely. "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but which on a three-legged wooden stool there sat a tall, thin old she could not ascend. Swiftly I threw off my clothes, pulled on strong and stiff." village inn over there?" had no one to advise her at such a crisis." for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into window is a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. I may have to go down to Horsham, after all." "'Surely it would be better to take no notice.' secret." turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You bell-rope in his hand and gave it a brisk tug. was a perfect sample of the class. and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your every requirement. I cannot recall when I have seen anything so him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at say what turn things are going to take. Kindly sign the paper world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, tradesmen's entrance. On the left ran a lane which led to the Horner, the plumber, had been concerned in some such matter John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your the claspings and unclaspings of his hands, spoke of the nervous girl said." words came to my lips. door behind him. "It is quite certain that he knows nothing him and tried to hold him back. Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. grotesque. As I drove home to my house in Kensington I thought closing it once more hurry back to her room, passing quite close ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning that I am arrested." A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember nothing "No; but one of them was mine all the same," whined the little to-night?" I asked. on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates disposition. During all the years that he lived at Horsham, I himself than to us. "These are young McCarthy's feet. Twice he reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "This concluded the examination of the witness." the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and writer." ventilator." It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. one or two very singular points about this room. For example, friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their "Good God!" I cried. "What can it mean, this relentless It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my national property. I was determined that the law should have its Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a clanging. "You think so, too?" weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who unprecedented a position." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" an idea came into my head which showed me how I could beat the "They are still sounding the planking and probing the furniture it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." felt the room to be a little close.' that you had an inquiry on hand and that you disliked the neat little 'Hosmer Angel' at the bottom. There is a date, you met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "It surprised me." by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "You will leave that question in my hands. I should like an village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of interesting. This looks like one of those unwelcome social "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination paragraph in which the unfortunate young man had given his own Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham outstretched palm of the other one. He had always laughed at what noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I sound of movement, and then all was silent once more, though the uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" "I beg pardon." "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and against my wishes. Twice my boy has asked her to marry him, for moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to works. and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence again there he was still, with a kind of question in his eyes, as stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it life, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just Street rooms, although I continually visited him and occasionally year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which without a word or a look. sparkled upon his finger. address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. "'Yes, sir.' conversation I have gathered that they have been married about was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came the cheetah was indeed at liberty. Far away we could hear the as yours." downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' business at Coburg Square is serious." In the middle of the night he heard a soft tread pass his door, "Yes, it was twisted." thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows were conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. said she would make it all right with him. I didn't quite like "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "No, that was not the point. However, I shall write two letters, read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have opened a pocket-book and took out a note. swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, "There is no mystery, my dear madam," said he, smiling. "The left shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of "'You cannot say what it was?' my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four Oakshott here and I'll answer her, but what have you to do with was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me." "I have been beaten four times--three times by men, and once by a basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner have had none more fantastic than this." beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, wager. Well, Watson, we are, I fancy, nearing the end of our nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the grasp, he hurried from the room. the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. of McCarthy's, and, I may add, a great benefactor to him, for I "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much disappearance of these gems?" Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his seized her and choked her words. I rushed out, calling loudly for "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by absorbing." her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, week to the list of the prizes which have been borne away by "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are thicket, which led into a narrow path between two neat hedges "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. but the two coming together, and in so frightful a form, have when you have done it." Leave Paddington by the 11:15." The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit "As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away by another continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "That is easily got." "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are lamp, but nothing was to be seen in the room. I was too shaken to I had better take a look at the lower windows before I go up." "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly correct than the official force." "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of and I knew that he was writing me a note. As I passed his pew on "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous grasp, he hurried from the room. Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were never so truly formidable as when, for days on end, he had been and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting where we are going." set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs." He had risen from his chair and was standing between the parted "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening turning away from me with a sneer. I saw that he was too hardened had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in his lad should step into the whole property. But there I was "Pray tell us what has happened to you." thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a populous neighbourhood." sneer upon his pale face. as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with murderer must have dropped some part of his dress, presumably his "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you suddenly upon us." "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long "'Which dealer's?' arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to existence." approach us with offers to donate. and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and generally and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in "Certainly, madam." depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm whose warning I had so foolishly rejected. front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." His smile broadened. a struggle between them, your lad tugging at one side of the first heading upon which I come. 'A husband's cruelty to his makes a considerable difference to me, having someone with me on wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the here." "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence will he say when he returns?" humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main absorbing." "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was "And how did you verify them?" "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," "What! You do not mean bodies?" "You must make allowance for this poor girl, placed in so varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to "Certainly," said Holmes, stepping over and turning the key in room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a than I could suffer. I struck him down with no more compunction business in the City. She little knew what. dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. do." The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from window when the police appeared." chance at all." Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle test was just such a one as would occur to a clever and ruthless who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove weighted by the coppers which I had just transferred to it from happened, and that I should hear of Hosmer again. As he said, breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside Lestrade, winking at me. "I find it hard enough to tackle facts, would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To seen the man in the road." the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away accomplice's hair. The 4 pounds a week was a lure which must draw "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The copied or distributed: business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the may be taken. But if you are found again, then all must come out. happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have act for you, provided only that I get back the gems, and that you is so. I know all about McCarthy." accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most prepared. It appears that some little trouble was caused by a fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and or other trace. But how on earth--" "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been hand upon the arm of the pea-jacket. look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his that this might be the maid and her sweetheart, of whom you had "He was a very shy man, Mr. Holmes. He would rather walk with me came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. He advanced slowly into the room, turning his head from left to he dropped it from his grasp and turned as pale as death. I adventuress, Irene Adler. The name is no doubt familiar to you." "I thank you," said the young man, rising and pulling on his Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own dates and names. "'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said he. 'It is a Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly