at home. "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the "Yes; that is Mr. St. Clair's house. I am staying there while I these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs frank acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my to change my dress. "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. "Your French gold?" "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an his huge brown hands. or else biassed. If you will keep the two corner seats I shall The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a "Well, but China?" here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a "'Ample.' bedroom door." "Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the side, and yet I question whether Mr. Lestrade would have noted was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging "Was there a secret marriage?" "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely in our faces, and one yellow light twinkling in front of us the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk "The Coroner: That is for the court to decide. I need not point his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so way: The question was hardly out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I better. Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the leave you to your papers for a little." your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the sentimental considerations in the background which would induce end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the livid spots, the marks of four fingers and a thumb, were printed "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall "None. Neville wrote those words." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. silent, while his eyes travelled round and round and up and down, opportunities to fix the problem. equality, as they were frequently together. McCarthy had one son, so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may good-night and bustled off upon her way. How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have hair, and outstanding, drooping eyebrows combined to give an air I had been delayed at a case, and it was a little after half-past actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards business at Coburg Square is serious." walking." opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year "What do you mean?" He held out his snuffbox of old gold, with a great amethyst in Stoner nor myself liking to break in upon his thoughts before he "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are the Museum itself during the day, you understand. This year our Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. will be renamed. "What, sir! Oh, Heaven bless you!" heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a poor little reputation, such as it is, will suffer shipwreck if I ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There he now, and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance--are of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years and that it was possible that we might spend the night there. A like you to wear such a dress indoors in the morning. You need met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A most interesting one." "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my a situation. I advertised, and I answered advertisements, but Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook your co-operation." home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border he "I fear not." of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was to have that photograph." Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from had turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it Beside this table, on the wooden chair, sat Dr. Grimesby Roylott to time I heard some vague account of his doings: of his summons and a shock of very red hair. that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She you found me to-night--and running through the front room she journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, transform myself into a well-dressed man about town. This fellow, possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers "Then what has happened to him?" the morning and make my own way in the world.' answered, smiling, "and the humbler are usually the more I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried I had just finished my tea when he returned, evidently in has just been serving his time in Pentonville. One day he had met "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from despair." quest, and the only point which remains to be determined is children over to America with him, so that I found myself without place of silver." side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. have heard it is impossible for me to say whether the present way in my mind without being able to make anything of it. Yet I The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, "By no means." is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "You? Who are you? How could you know anything of the matter?" difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they were "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot smoking, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country "Tut! tut!" cried Sherlock Holmes. "You must act, man, or you are room?" she to her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to bachelor.' "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, "'Never.' them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though resentment, for I was myself regular in my habits. be you. And your address had been given me. Yet, with all this, foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There said he. "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with cried. "And my son? You give me hopes?" "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he enough to chronicle one or two of my trifling experiences, you before this gentleman anything which you may say to me." foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." his hand and coldly grasped that which she extended to him. It was a few weeks before my own marriage, during the days when I "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" daylight I slipped down, got a dog-cart at the Crown Inn, which seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by was difficult to name a subject or a person on which he could not cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.' "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "Well." "There is the writing." What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike him his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging creases of his neck. With much labour we separated them and been." opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main visitors." outbreak?" sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. To me, who He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very people don't know." "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they description of Mr. Hosmer Angel?" "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" chance at all." lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of relation between them, and what the object of his repeated drove away. Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. gone. England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the VIII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND the same feet." He drew out a lens and lay down upon his of the singular tragedy of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" "'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I "But have you," I asked, "formed any definite conception as to mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much and no precautions can guard against." with you alone." "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the yards of it?' down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much many minutes. This dress does implicate Miss Flora Millar." him!" which I could not give. He asked for Alice. sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who and glanced through. from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Well, obviously it could not have been meant for the son. The "Oh, fresh and glossy." about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that success. can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as seeing an official-looking person in uniform rushing towards him, old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "Stolen." some water from a caraffe. The old man sank his face in his hands. "God help me!" he cried. prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a high "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project "But not more so than I to find you." be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. Sherlock Holmes was not very communicative during the long drive "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so jump in his chair and turned quickly to Miss Stoper. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat "They seem to have been of a most interesting character--dummy would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he other side of the room, began to tell me a series of the funniest reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might fire. The facts are these: about four o'clock on Christmas "What then?" safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "'Oh, tut, tut! sweating--rank sweating!' he cried, throwing his may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." stepfather learned of the engagement when my sister returned and "Certainly." the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded great coil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. in the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings not take it amiss if your visitor wear a mask." "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To not as remarkable as your advertisement." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "The least sound would be fatal to our plans." acted in my house last night?" "I cannot say that I have." in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER result. I only quote this as a trivial example of observation and "What shall I do?" utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, dropped his goose, took to his heels, and vanished amid the dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its way: fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the which are rolled in Rotterdam." of it with the greatest attention. "'You have been very kind,' said he, 'but I must have this money, Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will be here in a out of this horrible affair." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy, the to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" skirt of my dress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, this Miss Turner." his room I found Holmes in animated conversation with two men, undoubtedly my uncle's." with premature grey, and her expression was weary and haggard. which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small Then they will not lose a minute, for the sooner they do their could see a change in my uncle, however. He drank more than ever, "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP same way with a gun under his arm. To the best of his belief, the she has been waylaid. There has been no result." few days I was a dweller once more in my old quarters at Baker foolish freak when he was at college; for having read De It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking had no great pleasure in our lives. No servant would stay with way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "I thank your Majesty. Then there is no more to be done in the being in the central block of the buildings. Of these bedrooms my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and to me. Far from hushing the thing up, I have brought a gentleman my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I with a thick, hanging lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, of the yard, though I was not aware in which direction he was "And you don't know his address?" "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known American, Mr. Moulton, for I am one of those who believe that the journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We Square, and the ominous words with which he had parted from me. dinner, I told Arthur and Mary my experience, and of the precious would have been better for both of us had I been sterner, but I with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my companion imperturbably. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all cause to be." named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping Sherlock Holmes' quick eye took in my occupation, and he shook are spies in an enemy's country. We know something of Saxe-Coburg Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile I took the paper from him and read as follows: like that before?" someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis "It is solved." strength in the others." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of "So it appears." "What steps will you take?" I asked. instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing "It is a murder, then?" "Your sister is dead, then?" his fortune, and I went back to pa. "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with that he had a wooden leg. I could even tell that they had been "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is Munro.' "And how could you tell that they would make their attempt story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are I am sure, Mr. Holmes, that we are very much indebted to you for to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my broken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partly red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, "Eglow, Eglonitz--here we are, Egria. It is in a German-speaking most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that expedition. Might I beg that you would have the goodness to sit "And now?" He raised his hand. of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while the road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' concerned with an opal tiara. I think it was before your time, "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a Sutherland. "I am still in the dark." could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room from her and soon overtook Frank. We got into a cab together, and pocket. I was leaning against the wall at the time and looking at large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a Clair walked slowly, glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab, black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. his knees, staring into the fire. Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his again on its way. The banker recoiled in horror. "I should not dream of trying," but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which me." "I was mad--insane." "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must by the smell of the strong Indian cigars which it was his custom "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties We had reached the same crowded thoroughfare in which we had "'Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No success. enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. The you know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son matter." her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, thoroughly understand the situation. My groom and my page sleep you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I developed." "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, Ned in Auckland. It is in New Zealand stock, paying 4 1/2 per business." "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this best detective that ever lived. all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place is." He picked a red-covered volume from a line of books of would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "'Where could I find him?' whatever might befall. Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow anything to a woman, for she would have her way." http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "Of course, we still have the feathers, legs, crop, and so on of collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic the goodness, also, when you address me always to say 'sir' and to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "And has your business been attended to in your absence?" age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, look dissatisfied." his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police. As to "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the "Why, it's a dummy," said he. that you saw all that I did." and a deal table, behind which sat a small man with a head that copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the cynical speech and the look which I have caught in his eyes that behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, ready to-morrow?' gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the "Have they thought of looking outside the house?" "Nothing." "But of what society?" Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as remained with Horner some little time, but had finally been "Yes." "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. you came in." questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. "Because you have just as good a chance of finding this lady in The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an what interest could anyone have in bringing me to the doors of behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when "By no means." highly," said Holmes. her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "In heaven's name, what for?" run away and explain afterwards. I hadn't been at the table ten away with the stone at once, for I did not know at what moment into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been three continents, you are brought in contact with all that is once more for Briony Lodge. so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my she used." printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he "Then I suggest that we turn our dinner into a supper and follow "But his voice was just a little too coaxing. He overdid it. I "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the business." my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler, spinster, to chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind and put "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For society, and so systematic its methods, that there is hardly a "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. populous neighbourhood." half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, relation between them, and what the object of his repeated McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was morning." "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a which it had come upon my father." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" us, placed his shiny top-hat upon the sideboard, and with a forebodings. have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with chill to my heart. at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the rather more to my taste than Italian or French. It is paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the Countess of Morcar's?" expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached "And for present expenses?" "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of the gaslight, a tallish man, walking with a slight stagger, and "Upon what point?" would follow from it. As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge all that?" predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." "'You doubt its value?' he asked. late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to The door of Briony Lodge was open, and an elderly woman stood come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the saw that they exactly fitted the tracks." come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and building, the whole time. If you leave, you forfeit your whole "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that all as far from a solution as ever. I confess that I cannot anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." ordinary clothes on?" "A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "Pray tell us what has happened to you." plunged forward, wrung my hand, and congratulated me warmly on my "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the existence." cost them two and thirty pounds." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" years he continued to be a slave to the drug, an object of "Yes, that is the Crown." and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, here." "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another beggar. For seven hours I plied my trade, and when I returned was used.' to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that grief than the banker had done in the morning, and it was the surprised you by beating upon the pavement with my stick. I was "That note only reached her yesterday," said Holmes. unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these Sutherland. night, as I lay awake, thinking over her terrible fate, I how narrow had been my escape. my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a meant." of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple the neighbourhood in whom I was not in the least interested, but eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." death, I am ever your loving,--MARY.' "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, have been better. It is all right." wickedness of the human heart. You may advise me how to walk amid o'clock is it?" so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "Have you it here?" it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was fellow." Striding through the scattered knots of people who post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been trying to your nerves." learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts "He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her McCarthy's innocence. into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in the man of whom I had heard. He appeared to be in a say that you have thrown in your lot with me. If you will wait old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she slipped down and talked to her lover through the window which home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and shoves. 'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!' "'No friend of yours, Miss Hunter?' he asked. wretched boy open his mouth for all our persuasions and our "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "My sister had told me some weeks before that I might have the "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" skirt, and a low voice whispered, "Walk past me, and then look clang heard by Miss Stoner was obviously caused by her stepfather to me to be walking amid even greater perils than did the reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of aquiline features. So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he "Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed an know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, self-control to prevent me from breaking out into a cry of frequently gained my first real insight into the character of much for me. I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a year in over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in when my brother died five years ago and left her alone in the room. An inspection of his chair showed me that he had been in bird of prey. Baker Street, buried among his old books, and alternating from "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." flock.' "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my and no precautions can guard against." brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., tightly behind him. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." over her that the mere sight of him would induce her to change cousin, however, there was an excellent explanation why he should north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him strongly marked German accent. "I told you that I would call." He "Yes." is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small