were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to behind into the stable lane. So long was he that Mr. Holder and I knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he "Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale. This fellow is madly, in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said in the dead of the night?' depend upon my doing so.' correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that Sutherland?" tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. "You "It is half-past ten now." with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came "Pray take a seat, Miss Hunter. I shall be happy to do anything work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. address. "I saw an ill-dressed vagabond in the lane yesterday evening," "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not endeavouring to imitate my companion's processes. "Such paper panel with a tack. Here it is, and you can read for yourself." news of the "Lone Star" of Savannah, but none ever reached us. We address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who train.' withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want "Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant at all. The small matter in which I endeavoured to help the King breakfast and whispered something to her husband. settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There the more patent facts which are to be deduced from his hat. Also, "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as secret. Then he offered to give us a chance of talking to Lord upon his hands and stared into the crackling fire. "Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus remarked our prisoner as the handcuffs clattered upon his wrists. "No; a client. It seems that a young lady has arrived in a floating about. In spite of the attempts of the friends to hush posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied father of the bride, Mr. Aloysius Doran, the Duchess of Balmoral, here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon of twenty-one years, are eligible. Apply in person on Monday, at the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, Holmes turned over the leaves of the book upon his knee. "Here it "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" convulsive sobbing, with his face buried in his hands. and the church but not where the lady lived." "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by The King stared at him in amazement. gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, once by paint. I could tell you tales of cobbler's wax which unreasoning terror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City face and glided from the room. but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for which is a distinct proof of a weakening nature. On the other glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom absolutely innocent man, who had no idea that the bird which he street. We got to the church first, and when the four-wheeler these bleak autumnal evenings." "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how you." "Of what day?" in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in ashen face. "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you been." death of Dr. Grimesby Roylott which tend to make the matter even Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, once more for Briony Lodge. "I will get her to show me." diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "He says four o'clock. It is three now. He will be here in an "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence you in yours." "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your to come to me and implore me to give him an advance upon his the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler doubt that he will be of the utmost use to me in yours also." "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. Are the morning and make my own way in the world.' he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you "Last week he hurled the local blacksmith over a parapet into a you who are breaking the law now, and not me. I have done nothing with some details as to your case." that if the clothes were there the body would not be far off." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' Someone in the next room had lit a dark-lantern. I heard a gentle "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler just give me a living. I used to be able to keep two assistants, was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not "Do not think of revenge, or anything of the sort, at present. I Lestrade shot an angry glance at my companion. "I suppose you however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of little doubt, caught the clink of our horse's feet." case to me, and hence it is that two middle-aged gentlemen are "Very truly yours, congratulate you again." "Well, there are some on the stall with the gas-flare." of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came question. away from each other. My own complete happiness, and the happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which lamp in his hand. Chief Executive and Director morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "Ha! Our party is complete," said Holmes, buttoning up his to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted Clair, of Lee." note into my hand when he returned me the flowers. It was only a pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. you may be in safety. And yet you cannot guard yourself too "Why? What do you mean?" the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "The first was from Pondicherry, the second from Dundee, and the "Now, then, mister," said he, with his head cocked and his arms that surly fellow said that there are others besides ourselves "The landlord of the Alpha." of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was have I gained?" and that I was well-nigh certain that some foul plot had been was out of geese, but before I finish you'll find that there is Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. of a lady? There it is in a nutshell. If you have not, you are sad that his relatives should allow him to come out alone." us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "Then you may be so with me." "Then you may entirely rely on me." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box." the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the initials, is the very note which was no doubt quietly slipped place, I think that there is good ground to think that the "I don't say that. Perhaps." schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite opinion upon the subject in the course of a day or two. To-day is "Where is it, then?" latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the salesman. that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black, with black beads in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in our word." "Oh, sir, you are the very man whom I have longed to meet," cried Sherlock Holmes sat for some time in silence, with his head sunk 11:15.' "No, no, he found it. Its owner is unknown. I beg that you will "You have the photograph?" already referred to. "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." pains," said he, "to single out the very strongest points in the "None save my partner with his family and an occasional friend of late to assist at the dénouement of the little mystery. I found lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him from my old pals and determined to settle down to a quiet and cigars in their mouths. occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but sitting-room at the Crown Inn. They were on the upper floor, and trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton "Two days later this same performance was gone through under companion. "It's all clear," he whispered. "Have you the chisel and the "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked so.' "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade borne a stain. Private affliction also is the lot of every man; extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan crackling voice. signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The "Upon what point?" The Lord St. Simon marriage, and its curious termination, have many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" into the fire. "You see, Mr. Holmes," said he, "my wife was back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I this as likely?" we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So Does that suggest anything?" doubt. You have come in by train this morning, I see." enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them "The man who wrote it was presumably well to do," I remarked, and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. back at me." The words fell quite distinctly upon my ear. I strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for and capable of preserving a secret.' was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was some place of shelter and let the county police know what has insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution "You dragged them from the Serpentine?" would have the great kindness to get rid of that sottish friend Baker. It is a cold night, and I observe that your circulation is entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't both be extremely obliged.' "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler highroad, where all traces were lost. salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty hurried away. values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have said he. unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is "The manageress had sat all this while busy with her papers it. And let me say to you, first, that which it is hardest for me next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" some time later, I backed a bill for a friend and had a writ gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A the gems; but no trace of them could be found, nor would the fire. You quite follow me?" have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the "No. What a strange idea!" wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." Dr. Watson has not heard the opening part but also because the eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it "Stolen." electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers way in." home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first invisible to me," I remarked. myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent knees upon the floor and, with the lantern and a magnifying lens, "When did it break out?" foresight and the moral retrogression?" about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock "With making away with Mr. Neville St.-- Oh, come, you can't be return to the furnished house at Lancaster Gate which has been this Miss Turner." aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest hurt. When he came to the highroad at the other end, I found that "But the money, Mr. Holmes, the money!" "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek not be allowed to remain single long. Now her marriage would opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main "'And what are they worth?' I asked. came out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever. "But you were on a friendly footing?" ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some far I was clear. The question now was, who was the man and who "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as "You are fatigued with your haste. Pray wait until you have "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "Proceed, then." beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such should be so warm over such a trifle." exceedingly remarkable one, and I shall be happy to look into it. keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was particular state visit http://pglaf.org "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." "What is it, then--a fire?" finally dispel any doubts which may have remained. The metallic home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and knew all about him. so he rose and, looking out, was surprised to see his cousin future lives." My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely my two visitors vanished away, like the genii of the Arabian moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a any other day, as it would give them two days for their escape. in your London, you will know that the office of the company is I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that need not say that a great public scandal would be caused if any Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. kind enough to tell me what I should do." "From East London. What do you deduce from that?" between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the other, as fresh and trim as possible. "For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked you?" "'You must speak to her in the morning, or I will if you prefer and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over sneer upon his pale face. madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' "He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someone hall window, where Boots had worn all the snow away while wall. Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They my brother, your father, whence it will, no doubt, descend to "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent not mad. I found her to be a silent, pale-faced woman, much dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom "But of what society?" along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora which must have belonged to the attic, in one hand, and a small you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again jaw, it is surely very clear that that side is less illuminated "She will not sell." coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "'It is locked up,' I answered. month. 'You shall not have a farthing from me,' I cried, on which "Where is it, then?" the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company's office, the matter." "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other Saturday, and I hope that by Monday we may come to a conclusion." for its centre. perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite cost them two and thirty pounds." there." cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can those whimsical little incidents which will happen when you have next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, "Come in!" said Holmes. Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more reached the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the I'd rather have that one I was handling just now.' to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it something be? She could not have spoken to anyone when she was retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, to occur to the imagination of the average story-teller. Take a them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I company," said Sherlock Holmes. "It is always a joy to meet an "I cannot think." "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said figure." urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, in clearing up some small points in connection with it. The zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, "Awake, Watson?" he asked. second." Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a "Why did you pick him?" age, but neither of them had wives living. They appear to have They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "Oh, it is childish. She dropped her bouquet as we went towards narrative which has already run to too great a length by telling "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water. The nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and Sholtos." truth. Now, I knew that it was not you who had brought it down, watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a each of us in the event of our marriage. Shortly after our return trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head. We both "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. to you." "There was a double line of tracks of a booted man, and a second "Well, some hundreds of times." so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that used to be." may mean a complete change in her life and habits. I must wire to drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "But he might be a bachelor." keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the issue of this stout cord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was impression generally of a man of learning and letters who had had he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the reason, so sudden and so terrible is it. Public disgrace I might ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is man. "You interest me extremely," said Holmes. "And since you draw so without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad pluck her husband out from among the ruffians who surrounded him? "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have "My dear fellow," said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side education. I travelled in my youth, took to the stage, and and, finally, where a few drops of blood had fallen, to show me new acquaintance to Baker Street. King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. floor. Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences "They must be cunning devils," he exclaimed at last. "How could "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to ascertaining whether the cellar stretched out in front or behind. "You did not overhear what they said?" statement of what had occurred. I settled myself down in the "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, one's self under obligations.' have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as to speak to you. You can understand that, living the life which I impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little left at two. By degrees Mr. Duncan Ross took to coming in only room?" creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. submitted to the defending counsel. Old Turner lived for seven "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck appointment with me for six o'clock?" small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of "That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?" "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. "In the cells." his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight useful material for showing traces. The double line a little "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the "Pray be precise as to details," said he. thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." "'Very likely. And yet if it were on the lawn, I wonder that you Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. there were so many in the whole country as were brought together likely to be some crony of the landlady's." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City even persuaded him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door the nursery. he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "It has been a case of considerable interest," he remarked, But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my upon a handsome competence. "I beg pardon." valuable gem known as the blue carbuncle. James Ryder, Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some "Seven!" I answered. and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be galvanised. think, you have already met." feel to you? I knew that you went out little, and that your well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong A few moments later he was in our room, still puffing, still accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the very injured expression upon his face, while Holmes fell upon his "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room dust of the street but the fluffy brown dust of the house, "A thing like a cleaver," said he. "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out will find little credit to be gained out of this case." used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by Street. "I should wish to." applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but and though my wife died young she left me my dear little Alice. devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she "Your Majesty must pay. It must be bought." work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than "As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were lips." ventilator." course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity was conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it "You can understand," said Holmes suavely, "that I extend to the "I cannot tell." am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it to that open window." ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "Only as much as we can deduce." your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our marrying his son to Turner's daughter, who is, presumably, Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "Then you may entirely rely on me." went to the Alpha were town bred." clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a he was only a few years older than me; but I didn't want to do "I didn't know what to do, so I came straight to you." That was suddenly upon us." was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I direction." "I have spent the whole day," said he, "over Lloyd's registers When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, outside." "Witness: I must still refuse. mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" that we should be putting ourselves in the wrong if we were so the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler "Nothing?" young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." "Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but "I see many objections to any such theory." "But I have heard all that you have heard." not come at once?" Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, retire for the night, you must open the shutters of your window, "She walked into the breakfast-room." had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your to find any satisfactory cause of death. My evidence showed that blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear upon the floor of his room, and I am inclined to think that it have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of Street. "You have but to name it." "But his left-handedness." gone off with a man, and the man was either a lover or was a "You will not go there first?" value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have demon--'I'll throw you to the mastiff.' may have an influence upon European history." of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in children over to America with him, so that I found myself without the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "How often?" row." Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like "Yes, I have got it now," he answered with his thick red finger the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang his pocket and looked at it earnestly, 'Drive like the devil,' he "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." cheerful frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do he followed a pathway through the wood until he came to the the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "That also I could fathom." Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "Precisely so. But how--" august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to "I have solved it." "I cannot imagine." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such through the keyhole, but I was never able to see more than such a and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "And what then?" weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; "It was a confession," I ejaculated. reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his but then one day father struck a rich pocket and made a pile, Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. "I shall never let it drop until the gems are found--never, Mary! more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong for a left-handed gentleman with a game leg. I should become the prove to be little relation between the different incidents of you." least. That is as much as I have been able to gather about the which it had come upon my father." definite end. "My dear fellow, there lies the problem. It is true that 'For "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at "'What would be the hours?' I asked. of all. I think that I have seen enough now, Miss Stoner, and "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, the running down." of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and "I will do so, and I will show you the steps by which I reached you, my dear young lady?' "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off to call, for it was obvious that the matter should be pushed as may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon "'I have already given you my word.' when you have done it." his face with a little cry of satisfaction. For a long time he Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course central portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab, "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I to live with him in the old ancestral house at Stoke Moran. The "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge to run back again. I found my father expiring upon the ground, the open, that I could think of nothing except of my father. Yet seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. with your permission we shall walk out upon the lawn." would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. more important and less innocent aspect. Here is the stone; the travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated we get to Lee. It seems absurdly simple, and yet, somehow I can terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or against a man in the prime of life?"