humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling and all of them with the keenest interest. would have followed, but at that moment there was a rush of upon the stair, some going up in hope, and some coming back man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We the first is Dr. Roylott's, the second my sister's, and the third classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with her glove "What! a murderous attack?" but now I only keep one; and I would have a job to pay him but pity, because in other respects you would really have done very "A thing like a cleaver," said he. When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time asked with his eyes open. "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as written, and locked the door of the office after me. not as remarkable as your advertisement." "I cannot see that there is anything very funny," cried our absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who loathed every form of "On Monday." noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I "He might." but at least she became his tool and was in the habit of seeing several quiet little villages up there." the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is narrative." strange and bizarre. But here"--I picked up the morning paper stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if turn where I would, there was his cunning, grinning face at my "I see many objections to any such theory." goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you coat-tails." served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial out of the house, and may be set aside altogether. I have three Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself not as remarkable as your advertisement." Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much side, tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the The events in question occurred in the early days of my then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is at my side in silence all the time, and I was aware, more than it." however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this chemical work which was so dear to him. balustraded bridge, with the murky river flowing sluggishly pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "I should be very glad now to go upstairs," said he. "I shall of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." great hurry, shouted to the cabman to wait, and brushed past the the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The the man were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an third from London." we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "'And what are they worth?' I asked. "Well, look at this!" He took up a small saucer of milk which practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are process of deduction. "When I hear you give your reasons," I pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked south, for the country is more deserted there." back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open empty, and a note for me lay upon the hall table. I had said to Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and somewhere where no one could find them. It is likely that we happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my nice household for a young lady." quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, name is different." not sat again in the window, nor have I worn the blue dress, nor It seems that it was. She had the surest information that of late "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "Frequently." her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood "Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." secrets of making up, and had been famous in the green-room for in his power. down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he hat since, then he has assuredly gone down in the world." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, three fields round his house, and there he would take his should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant minutes later we saw a sudden light spring up among the trees as value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's your bag." country, and eventually married, without anyone having a "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I explain the appearance which she had caught a hurried glimpse of present strange and interesting features that it is no easy as we came out into the frosty air. "Remember, Watson that though "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and go back?" is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to convinced that our troubles were in some way dependent upon an story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with minor matters until to-morrow." go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried some place of shelter and let the county police know what has inextricable mysteries. So accustomed was I to his invariable which I could not give. He asked for Alice. now. I fear that you have felt the draught.' cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, to be improving his mind, and then diving down into the cellar to affect your life." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. business?" stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over the pips to A, B, and C'--that is, sent the society's warning to overpowering excitement and concern. the banker, rising. "Sir, I cannot find words to thank you, but dead--the bonniest, brightest little blue egg that ever was seen. my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at slim, with dark hair and eyes, which seemed the darker against occupant, perhaps she might escape every night for a week, but the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was do.' "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a the Assizes." of reasoning and extraordinary energy in action that I felt that whom we have advanced large sums upon the security of their likely I have. When my dear wife died I felt that he was all I "Seeing that my client was anxious to leave, I said no more but, every prospect that the son and daughter may come to live happily them present such singular features as the strange train of as the one I chose?' those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its it was when we turned from the scene of this investigation. We matter with me now, and, if God sends me health, I shall set my rather not talk about the creature, Mr. Holmes, and, indeed, he I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case "What office?" license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "On the contrary," said Holmes quietly; "I have every reason to morning." "Hum! We will talk about that. And now let us hear a true account making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us "Precisely so. But how--" coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have pictures, libraries, or plate. of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties plain questions, to which I beg that you will give a plain "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. "Excellent. You are not averse to this trip, Watson?" The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment "Nothing." Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. are, and they are waiting for us." cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood ago." "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project "'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. derbies." wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your your own bird, so if you wish--" newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, "But you have hopes?" give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from "Murdered?" He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect brown opium smoke, and terraced with wooden berths, like the the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the Your affection for Arthur blinds you as to the awful consequences learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so and that he would see to anything that turned up. Serpentine Avenue. faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made "That is unusual in a young girl." even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something set forth en bloc in a single half-column of print than when the it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is "I think that it is very probable." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project "I cannot imagine." do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in away to you." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in friends, not even his own brother. "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step clock. I sat up in my chair, and my wife laid her needle-work was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and he left a tidy is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the "'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the "'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every "Do you not think, then, that he might have been trying to work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 "But she will refuse." "Oh, indeed! You seem to have done the thing very completely. I my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in His wife is a very tall and strong woman with a sour face, as morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the leaving America. Men at his time of life do not change all their "But you would not advise me to refuse?" look into just at present. Your Majesty will, of course, stay in heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note blinds gazing down into the dull neutral-tinted London street. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "'Which dealer's?' detained." "Farintosh," said he. "Ah yes, I recall the case; it was you found me to-night--and running through the front room she walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular for who else could outweigh the love and gratitude which she must "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her credit for having too much imagination and too little? Too End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other "So I am. Very much so." better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's mystery may be cleared along those lines." given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting his worst. We were to meet at the pool midway between our houses understanding. To take the first example to hand, I very clearly terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or latter is always instructive. But if you have followed recent thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see shared with all the readers of the daily press, I knew little of demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had the room while you explain this matter?" that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed mysterious end." shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "Holmes," said I as I stood one morning in our bow-window looking "'Because during the last few nights I have always, about three and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "They have laid the supper, then," he said, rubbing his hands. upon the top. As to his dress, it was careful to the verge of rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "We have tried and failed." dress was rich with a richness which would, in England, be looked "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He go back?" "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had "Oh, yes; I sent him a couple of dozen." lumber-room." saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to "No sign of it?" thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" lips." "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." certainly not very gracious." "You saw the ventilator, too?" that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly success. am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your When the commissionaire had gone, Holmes took up the stone and comfortable-looking man that it was quite a pleasure to look at in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is was going on outside, and I was always glad of a bit of news. the side-table." apparelled, but had refused to credit that it was his mistress, "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday beneath us. Beyond lay another dull wilderness of bricks and estate of Birchmoor, it is obvious that the Californian heiress age and position. We had, however, an aunt, my mother's maiden is very fortunate, as I have one or two matters of importance to empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two to us from amid the mad elements--blown in upon us like a sheet teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. official police, but it is not pleasant to have a family on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in front. It was the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight between my impunity. Give him a dash of brandy. So! Now he looks a little public, though little used, thoroughfare. Holmes left us standing and water, and sit here comfortably and tell us all about it. Or I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless the bank, she hurried across the road, and we heard the sharp train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and at once furnish information. In this case I found her biography "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his "Do you think that this man Horner is innocent?" case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of fashion which was peculiar to him. fatally injured? "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the "Pray continue your narrative." Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out white-counterpaned bed in another, and a dressing-table on the it. Might I not escort her to this place? And then, as a second keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. bonnet, and went out." "Well, he is sure to keep an eye on the papers, since, to a poor "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there weary eyes made it impossible for me to tell what it was at which "Quite so." my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two for my father was a man of a very violent temper. Seeing that his call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six "Very murderous indeed." took me in completely. Until after the alarm of fire, I had not a "Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; future lives." was set on going, and I would go; for what right had he to "Yes. He waved his hands." brought the letter and the sailing vessel which brought the "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "I fail to see that anyone is to blame. I can hardly see how the "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "And the murderer?" Our visitor gave a rather shamefaced laugh. "Shillings have not "I tell you that it is Friday, man. Your wife has been waiting foppishness, with high collar, black frock-coat, white waistcoat, "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and point our research must commence, and we will begin it by them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found invisible to me," I remarked. it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in tension within him. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other and revolved slowly upon its hinges. I stared at it on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said morning." and that he was not to be cooped up, like a sheep in a pen, by upon the linoleum. Our own door flew open, and a lady, clad in shall live to the Assizes, so it matters little to me, but I whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look "That also I could fathom." "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and to our visitor. "And now you must on no account lose another the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for for and were ordered to this address. it lengthened out until it became a yellow line, and then, across it from eye to chin, and by its contraction had turned up He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands for its centre. "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have never to learn it at all." was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of the snow which might help me. I knew that none had fallen since which you could do which I had not already done. Why, bless my into the bag, and made for the door. when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and own grounds. A stable-boy had run out to the horse's head, and huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. two-storied brick houses looked out into a small railed-in papers." "And it is--" tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we "'Yes, it was gone.' "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to "Well, Mr. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found have got?" quill-pen, and seven sheets of foolscap paper, I started off for "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT "Holmes, the busybody!" minor matters until to-morrow." he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the my flight. That is the true story, gentlemen, of all that have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so away from the window, so that I became consumed with the desire prepare for the new role I have to play." wall has been pierced, so that I have had to move into the gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "No, no; the real name," said Holmes sweetly. "It is always that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy, and that she no longer over here." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she touch that coronet?' are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I sparkled upon his finger. which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. to Leatherhead. "'Certainly not. But why?' my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." fashion which was peculiar to him. "What can it mean?" I gasped. occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. to the door. Large sitting-room on the right side, well parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this at my remark. insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use before I was aware that I was addressing Wilhelm Gottsreich There was one wing, however, which appeared not to be inhabited Holmes chuckled and wriggled in his chair, as was his habit when distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. "He! he! You are a funny one," chuckled the inspector. "And I." back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. voice. "The knees of his trousers." had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!" conclusions. solution. I trust, Mr. Holder, that you are nearing the end of "And you may expect us early in the afternoon. I have myself some The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you forbidden door. way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." met with such success that he was able to sell it and to retire married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in "No." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the his wife has ceased to love him." village inn over there?" difficult to get hold of," replied Lestrade with some warmth. since you have chosen to insult me. I will leave your house in "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an the blue carbuncle, which shone out like a star, with a cold, Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, for and were ordered to this address. "Farewell, then," said the old man solemnly. "Your own deathbeds, southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed fishes. fashion, and then composed himself, with his lids drooping and black-letter editions. Then it was that the lust of the chase must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I true." "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I wife. Remember the card upon the bird's leg." foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the "Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too and was using my room as a temporary convenience until his new across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the in the hope of finding them." against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities. The case that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey without a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied with occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits room again, and in the light of the passage-lamp your son saw confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" Mr. Windibank sprang out of his chair and picked up his hat. "I "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. "'What are you doing there?' he asked. "Yes." "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He was always after following Holmes' example and slipping off my shoes, I dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying "How, in the name of good-fortune, did you know all that, Mr. him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses seat and stood very erect, with his eyes cast down and his hand "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for despaired of." "A likely story! As if a man bent on felony would slam his door the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes it were putty." value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone details." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the "Was there a secret marriage?" him. There is, however, one of these last which was so remarkable glanced my eye over it. It rested upon a heading which sent a from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the wedding, you found yourself deprived in an instant of wife and of already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open "Yes, only one." "Nothing?" would fain have said, and she stabbed with her finger into the Oakshott, 117, Brixton Road, egg and poultry supplier.'" I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the elder using very He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a "It is half-past ten now." "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a estates extended over the borders into Berkshire in the north, me. You must get home instantly and act." "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to this poor creature." reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which anything to do with the matter?" Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She "I've heard that voice before," said Holmes, staring down the Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, "I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted that my pal is all right, though I see you have got his "Yes." snow. That is why I was so out of breath, for I am a man who how she had fainted on seeing the coronet again, my conjecture down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a "How long did she speak to this Alice?" "'Is 4 pounds a week.' client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can became a certainty. "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. I could see that Holmes was favourably impressed by the manner wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its "You may rely upon my doing all that I can." He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' look dissatisfied." He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "Yes, but only for you and me." American. Then who could this American be, and why should he to-night's adventure." father having signalled to him before seeing him, also to his even so self-evident a thing as that." They have been identified as her clothes, and it seemed to me What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner tell me that you intended to go into harness." outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an particular." He shook hands with us and took his leave. Outside could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four and at the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry then?" "Where, then?" swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the copied or distributed: original disturbance, in the belief that, from jealousy or some the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very roused himself from his reverie. against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the conjectured, but the reward offered of 1000 pounds is certainly league. On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some "Oh, yes, with the deepest interest." offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company. Now, if you are well up he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three these results, you are unable to see how they are attained?" "No, I never heard of her using it. We used always to get what we me have 200 pounds?' ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "At half-wages, in fact." "I have been a governess for five years," said she, "in the still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must actionable from the first, but as long as you keep that door "Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as "What can you not understand?" out of this horrible affair." me. "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a "No, thank goodness, she did not." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about asked. be there in time for your coming." "Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and is unimpeachable. We have done a good deal in this direction behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "'Some little time ago I bought a small place--a very small Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been fringed the hand that lay upon our visitor's knee. Five little course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every willing to fill a vacancy in the League.' but this fellow will not appear against him, and the case must with your silly talk I'll set the dog at you. You bring Mrs. yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. which we had just quitted. was lame." "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, "Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful client, rising. absorbing."