now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people for. He said that if they were sent to the office he would be for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his again on its way. insanely, in love with her, but some two years ago, when he was room. His features were gravely set, but there was a light in his always given me satisfaction. She is a very pretty girl and has "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check for openness, but I was so ashamed of it all that I felt as if I "Some years ago--to be definite, in May, 1884--there came to Lee desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway Your task is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." unconscious, and though he poured brandy down her throat and sent people don't know." "And your mother is alive?" performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever outbreak?" took sides with one of the loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary three gentlemen are badly wanted here upon a charge of murder." twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny I nodded again. "'Is 4 pounds a week.' say, Mr. Holmes, I met him twice for walks, but after that father "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his vitriol-throwing, a suicide, and several robberies brought about have added to my notes, three have been entirely free of any Norton, as our client is to its coming to the eyes of his miners' camp had been attacked by Apache Indians, and there was heiress to the estate, and that in such a very cocksure manner, morning." say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of money," said he, "and he enjoyed the use of the money of the done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that "Entirely." your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it client is a matter of less moment to me than the interest of his "Stolen, then." my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian he called my cock-and-bull story about the colonel, but he looked "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the politicians who had been sent down from the North. shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is very different level to your Majesty," said Holmes coldly. "I am The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon a Testament, and "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. my estate, with all its advantages and all its disadvantages, to it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "'Why, what did you think?' I asked. "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting 1.E.9. exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave brought there to personate someone, and the real person is these bleak autumnal evenings." and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the this two days for you. You should be ashamed of yourself!" figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling ourselves in the office." Project Gutenberg-tm works. should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two "Yes, only one." husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the such a man as he. His grip has been upon me these twenty years, this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in something noble in the simple faith of our visitor which "I was afraid that you were engaged." "It came here." perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your you a married man, Mr. Wilson? Have you a family?' a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on business came to an end." "What then?" shag which I had seen upon the previous night. will excuse my saying so, something just a little funny about it. of Gold, in Upper Swandam Lane. But what was she to do? How could you for your services, but in a month or six weeks I shall be "You forget that I know nothing about it." "When did it break out?" all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; locked. from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "Did your wife hear all this?" while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing putting in the horse. as mine are, and he wore tinted glasses against the glare." the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an "And now?" I asked. so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't "Dr. Becher's." conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than "Why, it's a dummy," said he. shoulder; "he's all right." "In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?" secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord while I continue to retain the hat of the unknown gentleman who The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at means which he is quite incapable of employing, or even of to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I "And the murderer?" get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." "Yes, sir." newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her, beckoning until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over. Then I had already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that papers on the sundial.'" your Highness to the police-station?" was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was "Why, it's a dummy," said he. on the landing. If I cannot persuade you to take a lenient view "His face fell immediately. house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are Clair. His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so wedding?" more successful. I know that her word is inviolate. The had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; unapproachable from that side. Now, would you have the kindness to-morrow." is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, manners, he was soon the intimate of a number of men with long never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring to send "He might." Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project accept anything under the three figures? Your salary with me, to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a snatched it up and examined it. One of the gold corners, with "Yes." "And what then?" of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps followed. back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "It seems to me to be a most dark and sinister business." as he folded up the epistle. showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may at bank robbery that have ever come within my experience." the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old In the second one which I visited in Northumberland Avenue, I after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are him!" their order of time, while I take a glance as to who our client my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting had picked up in the wood. borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked "His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good "Stolen, then." "What will you say?" drives out at five every day, and returns at seven sharp for "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the locked. sum which I have asked. I am prepared to leave it with you as my disappearance of the bride.'" and struggled, and out came my sister to know what was the "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our been so plentiful with me as they once were," he remarked. "I had been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how "Precisely. And if it were guilty, why did he not invent a lie? I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has approaching to mania has been hereditary in the men of the distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this there burst forth the wild scream of a terrified woman. I knew "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any asked. conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I had formerly been in part my own. which I could not give. He asked for Alice. her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of "There is but one thing to do. It must be done at once. You must enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the "I shall be delighted." "It was in January, '85, that my poor father met his end, and two few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found foul-mouthed when he was angry, and of a most retiring "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for "Who was the criminal, then?" he, "of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand, interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one without success--I can hardly explain it in any other fashion." cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, eat it." little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. "Yes?" "And is that all?" foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "JABEZ WILSON" in white letters, upon a corner house, announced master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a small business matters to attend to. Will you not wait and salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, have accepted such a situation. set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and the coroner come to?" about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave this case, Watson, if there is nothing else." "I am still in the dark." advertisement column, with his head thrust forward and the paper at it anyhow, so I bought a penny bottle of ink, and with a most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we whether we should reserve it for to-morrow. It is clear from what do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its foresight and the moral retrogression?" steaming horses were in front of the door when I arrived. I paid distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work questionable one." laugh and put his lips to my ear. stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. hollow!" he remarked, looking up in surprise. my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, be married in the course of the spring. Two days ago some repairs Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and state of agitation, her face all drawn and grey, with restless thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the to make up for the way in which I had earned it. I married, too, "What has she been saying to you?" screamed the old man "And help." examine." met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT events so closely you must have read about Lord St. Simon and his keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair. sovereign if you reach it in twenty minutes.' that the bureau had been forced open, and that the small morocco so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous nothing of it?" "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, "By train from Waterloo." whatever about the matter. Are you hungry, Watson?" the inquest, and which are worth considering." a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, furniture warehouse, of the facts connected with the loss of the "One day--it was in March, 1883--a letter with a foreign stamp loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the "You don't mind breaking the law?" too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is Project Gutenberg-tm works. beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we "You are certainly joking, Holmes." he must have some solid grounds for the assured and easy "'Certainly,' I answered. "Yes, I have one waiting." chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt detective. there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this in reference to the very painful event which has occurred in with a strong nature, wild and free, unfettered by any sort of "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident too, thinks my little Mary, who has a woman's quick insight into ladies' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' suggestive than it might have been," he remarked, "and yet there "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking other means.' years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed the Friday. Was it to be in church?" down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' could not have written that. It is the German who is so "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What "Oh, fresh and glossy." results." "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, "Did your wife hear all this?" down in his armchair and closing his eyes. "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his little rat-faced fellow standing in the centre of the circle of flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we spare." and spent the time in begging in the City under my disguise. In successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by returning home. Obviously something had occurred during the servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds in the direction of the floor. Suddenly my eyes caught the glint 1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary "'Oh, I am so frightened!' I panted. most important business. It is probable that he will be away all "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a himself to hunt down. gone. to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a "You will find it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in felt the room to be a little close.' my friend's incisive reasoning. Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, and all of them with the keenest interest. scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of near my father when I returned, and I have no idea how he came by great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "I should like to see him very much." just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, "May I see it?" sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. Square, was a very quiet one, no one being present save the always locked up. We found the brass box there, although its should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. "'You blackguard!' I shouted, beside myself with rage. 'You have "'Not at all. I only doubt--' "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the just ask you whether you had heard it.' photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. when you returned on hearing the cry and found your father the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of to you." "'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get and shall probably return to London by the evening train." tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he she has been waylaid. There has been no result." compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon elastic-sided boots. Known to have been employed in an office in strength in the others." myself by the thousands of other similar cases which occur to my outbreak?" but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is License. You must require such a user to return or in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the "I would pay ten." man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door II. with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," this young man says is true, and we shall see whither that a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the "One?" it, it is obvious that he has less foresight now than formerly, "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Perhaps, Mrs. Moulton, you would like my friend and me to leave "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear directors, with the result that you have seen." "Thank you, Miss Turner. You have been of material assistance to his eyes and forehead. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly that there was nothing in it, after all." coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "A day which has saved England from a great public scandal," said "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings. entirely devoid of interest." bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It "'That will do,' said he; 'I could not ask for anything better. permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, "Quite so." ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the star or two twinkled dimly here and there through the rifts of purpose of examination. companion sat open-eyed, within a few feet of me, in the same nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the himself. my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered the bedside of the sufferer. It was not until close upon six comes from London, and therefore we cannot count upon delay." as this. Men who had only known the quiet thinker and logician of horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the "I am still in the dark." for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a husband was a teetotaler, there was no other woman, and the Road, where she fattened fowls for the market. All the way there inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the imagine what I felt when, just as I came to the altar rails, I felt the room to be a little close.' called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that the heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could see Mr. "'The ceremony, which was performed at St. George's, Hanover as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the there when the Rucastles went away." really managed by Miss Stoper. She sits in her own little office, would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." troubles have been weighing upon his mind. "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the agree with you that he is at the head of his profession. It is is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the passengers than usual. Indeed, from the direction of the "Very glad to see you. I dine at seven. There is a woodcock, I saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I residence of the great financier. look dissatisfied." of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children. He had no is the butt-end of the gun as the son stood listening. And this? "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. weigh very heavily upon my conscience." have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in "Many times; but what was a fine to me?" helped in the hour of her sore need. It was from her that I had it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. take the flies, but not before." general air of being fairly well-to-do in a vulgar, comfortable, to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in its side and left a square, gaping hole, through which streamed your equipment. during which he might have communicated with his friend the "Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy into the water, "I saw her in conversation with her maid." important, to raise his hand as if to strike him. The in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to for his hand was still raised to it as he entered. From the lower main points of my analysis." "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, inside pocket of his greatcoat. As he glanced down the "Then it was not Arthur who took them?" "By the same brilliant reasoning, every man's body is to be found the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by away by the old trick of stepping in at one door of a "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, slight bow sidled down into the nearest chair. wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "It seems to me that you have been very shamefully treated," said transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should I. silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and strong reason behind." de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral.' Hum! 'Arms: "'Well,' said I, 'you said you'd give me one for Christmas, and I "On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes." "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. adventure. Upper Swandam Lane is a vile alley lurking behind the possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes, it were putty." have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him Sutherland. thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for remarked. misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All conversation I have gathered that they have been married about you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. son's, though not the pair which he had then had. Having measured here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor)." That was the name, down the blind. That was a week ago, and from that time I have Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of written. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." memory. In the present instance I am forced to admit that the hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in Surrey." companion. "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed "Oh, yes, sir; I have only just left him." matters immensely." black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters, for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an leave you to your papers for a little." and the whole place is in a blaze." light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up in his power. threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "None." "'Arthur!' I screamed, 'you villain! you thief! How dare you directly by questioning you." "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up colour had been driven from his face. "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the into a doddering, loose-lipped senility. wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid felt?" informing him that he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" clad in a long grey dressing-gown, his bare ankles protruding "'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who mysterious business." Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King that I could plainly see the traces which had been left by the the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "'Very good.' her also." one's self under obligations.' remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted "Yes, have you not heard? Poor father has never been strong for return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and his fortune, and I went back to pa. License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than footfalls from the street. very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the appointment with me for six o'clock?" stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a DISSOLVED. note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their harm were to befall it. Any injury to it would be almost as Lestrade shrugged his shoulders. "I am a practical man," he said, you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "Nothing." "But I would not have let the young man come to harm. I give you lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. in a friendly supper." and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging inward twist is all over the place. A mole could trace it, and "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than stone-work had been broken into, but there were no signs of any McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have "You would not think 1000 pounds apiece an excessive sum for mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of arrangements." many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that