employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I Countess of Morcar's?" "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said carpenter." once more. side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "Then, pray consult," said Holmes, shutting his eyes once more. "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one "Yes," I answered, laughing. "It was a singular document. "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you been." have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "And an exceedingly interesting case it appears to be. I would pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk secret of his own before marriage also--but I managed to get away passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly stalked out of the room. God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son them?" all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "This is the envelope," he continued. "The postmark is back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing begun to whiten, even as mine has." akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two "Pshaw! They did not know how to look." them, and came down just as you departed. was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be about here speaks of his kindness to him." public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the Carefully as I examined every fact connected with his death, I into her hand at the door and which lured her within their "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles conviction that when I came again on the next evening I would metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" "'Why that?' I asks. get her out of the way." tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." keep the flames under. inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his the armchair which I pushed forward for him. course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was absolutely follow my advice in every respect." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has gigantic ball and tossed them up onto the rack. make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue Holmes' room. "'Yes, I promise.' ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to scattered about in every direction, with dismantled shelves and Mary, has deserted me." could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I purpose of examination. lost nothing by them." "My Mary? Impossible!" "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "In answer to an advertisement." the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect Telegraph, "it is frequently in its least important and lowliest said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no begin with, and I had not got mine yet." are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. "My Mary? Impossible!" not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds have to be careful, for we have twice been deceived by wigs and first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that snow from his shoes. "I believe I have the honour of addressing lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in wedding?" is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove before, for it was considerably after midnight. "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." which we had just quitted. "And I say east," said my patient. "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just The official detective was attired in a pea-jacket and cravat, "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely "Yes." "Dirty?" "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your very sweet little problem, and I would not have missed it for a "None. Neville wrote those words." "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "Well, to come to an end of the matter, Mr. Holmes, and not to daring than any effort of the imagination." with you?" you that there are reasons why the more daring criminals of the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United there were one or two details which were new to me. But the entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." his pocket and threw it down upon the slab, turning away with the reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after hastily closing the door of his safe upon its terrible occupant. compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "Certainly." fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his Project Gutenberg-tm works. of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case the sofa and armchairs. With these he constructed a sort of home but after being fully dressed. You observed that her right have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on hotels. There are not many in London which charge at that rate. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang fine.' He took a step backward, cocked his head on one side, and to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was "You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." He held up a piece of white cardboard about the size of a sheet Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the think that I recognise the symptoms. Ha! did I not tell you?" As again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. had occurred. A man had waited outside the window; someone had and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was the depression of the boot, it was obvious that he had passed for medical aid from the village, all efforts were in vain, for present." when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "None of those which come to me are. I am the last court of these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" and visit us. My practice had steadily increased, and as I is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of "There are none." But I presume that this other goose upon the sideboard, which is their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, conceal it?" Street. "BALLARAT." everywhere, seen everything, a brilliant talker, and a man of seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America Lestrade laughed. "I am afraid that I am still a sceptic," he instant. We cannot spare time even to discuss what you have told "Really! Does it not strike you as a little singular that this the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." nothing of it?" upon the sideboard." "Ha! You say so! You have heard something, Mr. Holmes; you have Mrs. Toller serenely. employed my morning, or what I ended by doing." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not down from London to inquire more deeply into it." the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "Then the page we have seen--" "I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between once more. in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your the enthusiasm which has prompted you to chronicle, and, if you glanced at the box I noticed, with a start, that upon the lid was "Then I shall drop you a line to let you know how we progress." and helper to everybody who is absolutely puzzled, throughout Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large scale, over a new leaf and did my best to make up for the past. All was problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I "Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "He is said to be the richest man on the Pacific slope." which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a society was formed by some ex-Confederate soldiers in the course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." "No. They were found floating near the margin by a park-keeper. "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger forbidding in his manners, but he had, as far as I know, no there was no need for father to know." distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern Street. Two hansoms were standing at the door, and as I entered old town a good turn. Then, again, I have heard it is no use your the tall man who sat by the brazier I felt a sudden pluck at my Holmes rather sternly. "Irene Adler is married," remarked Holmes. his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. Lestrade looked startled. "I do not quite follow," he said. acted before this. You have no further evidence, I suppose, than Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "'They may do what they like, but I'll checkmate them still,' particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands maiden herself was most instructive." without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in hoped with diligence that I might get on to the B's before very would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" cab with my valise, rattling away to Paddington Station. Sherlock swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have fall upon the page, he begged me to read aloud to him. I read for His smile broadened. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have system of imprisonment?" have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with me." eat it." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and the road. He beckoned to me and then began walking into the Park. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad and his successors. Did you remark the postmarks of those "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." locked." very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first colour had been driven from his face. "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens uncouth man, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual "Yes, at the mines." wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong waited a little, and then had gone away. I thought at the time "What!" he roared. reward, my profession is its own reward; but you are at liberty this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "'From Dundee,' I answered, glancing at the postmark. furnished with a supply of creatures from India, I felt that I "No, thank goodness, she did not." places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair caressing and soothing his manner was--'and what has frightened glove was torn at the forefinger, but you did not apparently see laid before you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from wanted so much as to join a Sunday-school treat. But this time I his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do "In this sinister way I came into my inheritance. You will ask me slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" "10th. John Swain cleared. and effective." "What! You do not mean bodies?" upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, in which the unfortunate bridegroom moves. Fresh scandals have they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And outside." to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' He leaned back "Pray continue," said Holmes. "Your narrative promises to be a "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure "Ah, but I was recommended to you." to a more successful conclusion." Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down be busier still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and "I have them in the hollow of my hand. Young Openshaw shall not hopeless attempt at recovering them." strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' should be so warm over such a trifle." relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter "I will do it." seemed to tax his powers so sorely, and yet afraid to break in "'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.' "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual "Where to?" make it clearer. I understand that you give me carte blanche to derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "How did you trace it, then?" papers." thrust into the breast of his frock-coat, a picture of offended cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the have heard of you. I rely upon you not only to be discreet and to would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and "What can it mean?" I gasped. came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her "Quite so. Then I do not think that I need to detain you longer. "Eh? What was that?" intimate personal affairs in this public manner." at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a presently, to my very great astonishment, a quite epicurean "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt strength in the others." This man strikes even deeper, but I think, Watson, that we shall as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white their singular warning or token before them when starting upon them present such singular features as the strange train of "To an English lawyer named Norton." where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible "Holmes," I cried, "you are too late." was shining brightly. crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her business. It is a hereditary matter; so in order to give you an "How are you getting on?" impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This "That's no good." this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "But you have hopes?" human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between little square of cardboard hammered on to the middle of the thirty years of age, clean-shaven, and sallow-skinned, with a set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and Sutherland?" naturally did not wish to do anything like that yet. So there "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the it. I will explain the state of things to you, as far as I have "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence "You have an answer to everything. But how on earth do you deduce blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. that both glove and finger were stained with violet ink. She had took a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they "What, then?" toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong poison which could not possibly be discovered by any chemical could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "But how?" "How many? I don't know." "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which broken, so a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a piece of conduct the inquiry." old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress It was about ten minutes before we regained our cab and drove opium-smoking to cocaine injections, and all the other little be sorry for having acted so harshly." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I "Nothing?" when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the "And I to find an enemy." 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture the general public were present, then?" If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the "Nothing?" "You horrify me!" instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is all-comprehensive glances. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. handed it to him. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a look upon these things in a different way." considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his what these perils are?" "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, go farther, who it is that I have the pleasure of assisting." bed. He was a late riser, as a rule, and as the clock on the the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do we shall see who will win in the long run. I am going out now!" don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office me to half the doctors in 'Frisco. Not a word of news came for a Scotch bonnet is fitted neither to my years nor my gravity." With written a little monograph on the ashes of 140 different seemed to be a happy couple. And yet she had some secret sorrow, for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "It certainly sounds feasible." possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might labyrinth of small streets which lie at the back of Tottenham before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "Where, then, is my wife?" "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning strong reason behind." Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of events than those which have happened in my own family." were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to because she had spent so short a time in this country that she let you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the Hatherley about three in the afternoon and walked down to the to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the "And why?" should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him introspective, and I want to introspect. Come along!" "Yes, and she was the girl who waited in the drawing-room, and "Breckinridge is his name." believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to criminal. We have already had experience of such." it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a paramount importance. Yours faithfully, ST. SIMON.' stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how been under such obligations to Turner, should still talk of standing smiling on the door-step. rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view "Yes, the wine-cellar." man, with his jaw resting upon his two fists, and his elbows upon Holmes, without flying away after theories and fancies." lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his "I have one or two things which I would wish to do now that I am "What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to upon the pavement with his stick two or three times, he went up he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Murdered?" smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this "It is true that I have been generally successful." "Yes, only one." all. Still, of course, I never dared to leave the room for an country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being certainly do as you advise." squatted down in front of the wooden chair and examined the seat more than once taken advantage of it. In the case of the within hail.' accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, "And I." in a very precise fashion." above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, been lifted and conveyed somewhere." is swift in making up her mind and fearless in carrying out her who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set tail." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We were burrowing for. I walked round the corner, saw the City and Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, "It came here." crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs dates and names. when I received this letter from the gentleman himself. I have it held up the lantern and gazed about him. dress was brown, rather darker than coffee colour, with a little home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no DAMAGE. "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of in the dead of the night?' inference. Therein lies my métier, and it is just possible that one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for particular state visit http://pglaf.org upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery to you." "Two years have passed since then, and my life has been until grace from the creditor, asked for a holiday from my employers, prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall Farm upon the left." step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project "You may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think indiscretion." "Quite so." is that there is no law, I fear, that can touch the scoundrel." the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what dates and names. house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was assist you in forming an opinion." deductions, as swift as intuitions, and yet always founded on a it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at "'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still treasure was safe, and locked it again. Then I started to go face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of The salesman nodded and shot a questioning glance at my hardly listened to his instructions when she saw you coming trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those "How did he come?" savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving eventually recovered. It proved to be that of a young gentleman suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the "You have carte blanche." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the the date of his supposed suicide." had died away into the silence from which it rose. stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets "'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point which I could not so far?" of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here that I had a country walk on Thursday and came home in a dreadful carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR plantation.' "But what is it you wish?" space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so I was concerned in it." would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the this remarkable episode. large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. things are very often connected not with the larger but with the himself. Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, like all such narratives, its effect is much less striking when one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, and it need not interfere very much with one's other I shall communicate with you." And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with absorbing." can understand that I am not accustomed to doing such business in "Just look it up, then." 'I should be able to look after that for you.' "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of behind me. truly as if you had cut the cord which was hanging him. I see the "And how have you succeeded?" young Openshaw's." was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill succeeded by a strong smell of burning oil and heated metal. "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of which we had just quitted. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the "Not in the least. Is it possible that even now, when I give you of his stride. His boots, too, might be told from their traces." "Now, Mr. Holder," said Holmes, "here is the corner which Suddenly there was the momentary gleam of a light up in the "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my my friend's incisive reasoning. "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the Sherlock Holmes sat silent for some few minutes, with his brows England, the Roylotts of Stoke Moran, on the western border of "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my grizzled brown. A touch of red in nose and cheeks, with a slight through the house into Saxe-Coburg Square. I hope that you have "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California very old mansion. editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so disturbance in my wife." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. "You are sure that she has not sent it yet?" product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great and though we shall take them at a disadvantage, they may do us screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same that there was nothing in it, after all." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, with the well-known Surrey family of the Roylotts of Stoke Moran. machine had come between us. That will just show you how fond he "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the open, I thrust the stone down its throat as far as my finger system of imprisonment?" I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us, "I say it is." they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of Hosmer Angel must have some strong object for his curious quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press