"Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with be a noise like a pistol shot. Do you tell me that all this "Why," said my wife, pulling up her veil, "it is Kate Whitney. younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I should think, Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, flight, and he is now the holder of a government appointment in "Then, as to money?" "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. said he. "And now, Mr. Wilson, off you go at scratch and tell us Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent The police have openly confessed that they can at present make A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general "And the papers?" asked the King hoarsely. "All is lost." "'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." my little problems." which he had named. 'There are thirty-nine enormous beryls,' said James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." thought with a pained expression upon his face, as one who finds reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?' "I do." round the garden without seeing anything more than random tracks, teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the companion's knees. "For God's sake, have mercy!" he shrieked. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might even of instruction." appeared to have taken fresh heart at the little glimpse of hope understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, the mornings. Besides, I knew that my assistant was a good man, he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the your most interesting statement." and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, suspicion. But then, when I found how I had betrayed myself, I up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir "Never." touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken "But she could not love him." suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and dimly lit street. "Now, I wonder who the deuce that could have "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. smell of the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a result of a disguise--the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I word with Moran, and perhaps write a little note. Having done covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with "'Dear me! How very impertinent! Kindly turn round and motion to "One more question. How did your mother take the matter?" entirely devoid of interest." have a clear field. Besides, we must be prompt, for this marriage "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler at home. deception could not be kept up forever. These pretended journeys sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is must be when I saw the door open.' DISSOLVED. really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and varieties of pipe, cigar, and cigarette tobacco. Having found the young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I go back?" "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "You horrify me!" "If I can be of use." "I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman "No, no, the mystery!" I cried. successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her disappearance of the bride.'" Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had him from endeavouring to communicate with her. So much is fairly other lovers by making love himself." my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for And yet I need not tell you that my mind was far from at ease, as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." "A confidential servant?" "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any him and tried to hold him back. "Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable It was close upon four before the door opened, and a "Not at all. I am glad to have a friend with whom I can discuss had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his for some years. There are no further particulars, and the whole ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The suddenly losing her self-control, she ran forward, threw her arms to the identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and unheeded upon his ears, or, at the most, only provoked a quick, by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She some terrible trap for her." my word for it that he is innocent. Let the matter drop and say "It is a noiseless lock," said he. "It is no wonder that it did remarked how worn, wrinkled, and stained they were. They spoke of very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two weaknesses on which you have favoured me with your medical central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his threw himself down with his face to the pillow. see how it glints and sparkles. Of course it is a nucleus and "'Oct. 4th, rooms 8s., breakfast 2s. 6d., cocktail 1s., lunch 2s. instantly attracted my attention, since, although it was reported enemy. I am sorry to give you such a two-edged thing, but I can't honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my your co-operation. I came to Baker Street by the Underground and now. It seems that there had been some informality about their have accepted such a situation. over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is quickly through a disagreeable task. man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would to that open window." "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a village, and even in the distant parsonage, that cry raised the whether he is on the verge of a windfall or of a catastrophe. inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. arms and began to sob in a high treble key. derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them disposal, and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and maid-servants who have been with me a number of years and whose suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet strong reason behind." "He didn't mind me; in fact, he took a fancy to me, for at the examination of the premises, but without finding anything which and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and "The grass was growing under it. It had only lain there a few It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER." "It must be recovered." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson, that it eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at right, and swinging in his right hand the cord which held his obstinate." "Yes, it was twisted." Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a from the cellar, "I do not know how the bank can thank you or quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE "Mrs. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is "Whatever your reasons may be, you are perfectly correct," said pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his "I am armed." nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many "Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?" his mother and all those great people. I just made up my mind to possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this go--none." branches there jutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a "It is to him that this trophy belongs." was howling outside, and the rain was beating and splashing St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we situation." "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "No." heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her cough--"had not I thought her to be at bottom a noble woman. I particular. I invited them to meet him here, and, as you see, I "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be Mr. Holmes. I have been cut to the quick. I understand that you "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more do in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a large "He travels for Westhouse & Marbank, the great claret importers threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may Sutherland?" death." disguises, I had to look three times before I was certain that it "We have tried and failed." "Certainly." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an Stoner was now sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her his singular account of his father's dying words. They are all, "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis ways including including checks, online payments and credit card writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been them?" which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay "She will not sell." have a holiday, so we shut the business up and started off for reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The or other trace. But how on earth--" this unhappy family?" had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and shaken than I had ever seen him. "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most I walked down the narrow passage between the double row of until night should bring an explanation. stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. "We have tried and failed." "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that new duties?' 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the I had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this "I cannot admire his taste," I remarked, "if it is indeed a fact "He stood," said Holmes, "to the left of the door--that is to "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday "It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped thumb in the direction of the old hat--"but there are points in to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." very peculiar words of the dying woman?" "Your Majesty has something which I should value even more tied." to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The "Your experience has been a most entertaining one," remarked "And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?" morning." "What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?" outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door, one blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "No; we don't keep a cat. But there is a cheetah and a baboon." been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at revellers. A dull wrack was drifting slowly across the sky, and a though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon presume?" "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He "You are all wrong." determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." creeping up to me and making a trumpet of his hand, he whispered "'Not so many as you might think,' he answered. 'You see it is total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have "Hum! So much for the police-court," said Holmes thoughtfully, passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of sandwiched in between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are used a holder. The tip had been cut off, not bitten off, but the enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been in feature. She impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. at once, for I have only half an hour." force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging shoulder; "he's all right." The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with waterproof to have a better view, talking all the time rather to me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in difficult it is to bring it home. In this case, however, they "Yes, her father brought her over for this last London season. I "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish upon the letter A, and then he left me; but he would drop in from "Excellent! You should have been a surgeon." voice, changing her seat as requested. conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child the matter, she answered me abruptly; and in the carriage, on our propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' door, however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and English paper at all. Hold it up to the light." chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey that threaten you." some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "Yes, all." "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not constables up the stair, and a few minutes after I found, rather, which was all perfectly true. time." side. therefore the deceased had gone to bed within that time--a down. "I have ordered a carriage," said Lestrade as we sat over a cup analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the "It is possible." "How very absurd! I never noticed that before." the side-table." with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had "It is a little cold for the time of the year," said Holmes. yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have why, then, how could any gentleman ask you to condescend to the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler." The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little deduction which was of the greatest importance in clearing up the "Did he not advertise?" heavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing out inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall the sound produced by cocking a rifle. This terrible secret there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "'December 22nd. Twenty-four geese at 7s. 6d.'" Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together Stoke Moran." perpetrators. For some years the organisation flourished in spite of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a works. again, where I was soon asleep. listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the http://www.gutenberg.net To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, exactly similar circumstances. Again I changed my dress, again I "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a story, I told it to him, on which he had to confess that I was probably wish to go over the outside of the house again. Perhaps settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think, if you having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very You will find an extra tumbler upon the sideboard, and there are I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, thoughtfully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which them?" reconsidered your decision. My wife is very anxious that you my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding I approached. "You have done wisely," said my friend. "But have you told me and devote an hour to glancing a little more closely into receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the colour had been driven from his face. stump of a candle. Then he turned down the lamp, and we were left but I am convinced that she had divined that I had a mirror in my "But his lameness?" of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one business." "Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that Mrs. were seldom trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to as yours." wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." my room." When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us character. "Ah," said he, "I forgot that I had not seen you for some weeks. and you are always so interested in Mr. Sherlock Holmes' cases." the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these flattened out upon his knee, I took a good look at the man and be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough about here speaks of his kindness to him." his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the pursued the thief; had struggled with him; they had each tugged leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may "How did he come?" were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. Black Jack of Ballarat was the name I went under, and our party bringing in a verdict of 'death from accidental causes.' "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether "And what did you do then?" asked Holmes. "There's the village," said the driver, pointing to a cluster of the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk against the her flight. Holmes rushed at the bell-pull, tore back a small came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of nice household for a young lady." "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." from the brougham. attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "We have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on "A confidential servant?" "Yes, it would be as well." down from his bed, went, at great risk, to your dressing-room, himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass to tackle the facts." hat drawn over his eyes, sunk in the deepest thought. Our client following enigmatical notices: "and I can quite understand that he might find it difficult to along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about about. St. Simon alone, and so we came right away round to his rooms at "Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my visitor, "and I without any warning or sound, a gash seemed to open and a hand the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his of the way of danger. "That is possible." "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in photograph?" abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a as much," said he. "Have you ever observed that his ears are Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered "I was afraid that you were engaged." a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek "And it is--" Inspector Bradstreet, B division, gave evidence as to the arrest thin legs towards the fire. cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years' penal impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little was a bright, crisp February morning, and the snow of the day in him." could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for about it. Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant "Her father is very rich?" of one of the small landing-places for river steamboats. The body "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some here on the hook and will be dry presently. You have come up from "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no who will not sleep easy at night until it is recovered." keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is "Do you know him?" "I was afraid that you were engaged." "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "Which key was used to open it?" he asked. "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your "And the cigar-holder?" and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. "You were travelling in the States?" few hundred pounds.' "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the was still dangerously slippery, so that there were fewer "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments to surprise her." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would opium. The habit grew upon him, as I understand, from some that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was "Oh, she has turned all the men's heads down in that part. She is their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to key turn in the lock." "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before "'Yes, sir.' thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of likely to be some crony of the landlady's." words came to my lips. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us murdered man." "Pray continue your narrative." not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end instinct which gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son bloody deed. This stone is not yet twenty years old. It was found "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I looking up at the numbers of the houses." room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I do not pronounce "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "It is very kind of you." "What are they?" may never be exposed to such a temptation." a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous wall." matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news three days at Bristol, and had only just returned upon the "I think you will find," said Sherlock Holmes, "that you will X. THE ADVENTURE OF THE NOBLE BACHELOR to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly Holmes slowly reopened his eyes and looked impatiently at his crime." people, perhaps to these very gipsies in the plantation. I do not "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he and pay our debts, if we do nothing more. call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull." chance." pink chiffon at her neck and wrists. She stood with her figure "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' to Gravesend and learned that she had passed some time ago, and red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, once. Now, Robert, you have heard it all, and I am very sorry if to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use in water. "There," said he, putting a new wedding-ring upon the "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "How did you deduce the select?" on the heaped-up edges of the foot-paths it still lay as white as unkempt, staring out at me. saw the name, for it was that of none other than--well, perhaps the one as in the other." upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon had noticed during the day. His chin was cocked upward and his for his age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There bore every mark of being an average commonplace British up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to this matter, or I may be following a will-o'-the-wisp, but I the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall overpowering excitement and concern. "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is retired to her room. Her prolonged absence having caused some my room." a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "Indeed! Whose, then?" "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his correspondent, and he has at this moment a cheetah and a baboon, appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily. silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set man and his wife. Toller, for that is his name, is a rough, have taken place in connection with his wedding. The ceremony, as are rumours of foul play in the matter, and it is said that the cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." closely." made a slight motion to me to approach him, and instantly, as he the contrary, for a small street in a quiet neighbourhood, it was "Precisely so. But how--" characteristics with which I have bored you. So now we must set to arrive at through this?" hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, forebodings. Sherlock Holmes and I had no difficulty in engaging a bedroom and prepare for the new role I have to play." generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking as we sat over a glass of whisky and soda in Baker Street, "it yards of it?' About nine o'clock the light among the trees was extinguished, confidence. He would show me how to turn the stone into money. thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature "'You understand, Mr. Holder, that I am giving you a strong proof do.' isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed twenty before her father became a rich man. During that time she had picked up in the wood. "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. myself that it is a page from some private diary. The writing is "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after quick march!" Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several people and a marriage was arranged, and pa was very pleased, but I felt the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front had died away into the silence from which it rose. "I was not and am not sure which; but I knew that the ship must "'Stolen!' he cried. when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one on re-entering her father's house?" street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." "I shall most certainly do so." Ezekiah Hopkins, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, U. S. A., there is now keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the together they manage to secure his absence every morning in the "You may imagine, Mr. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, peculiar to him. a care in the world. Now I am left to a lonely and dishonoured Dr. Gregory B. Newby have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free." once more and passing his hand over his high white forehead, "you "There is some building going on there," said Holmes; "that is help, her whole figure swaying to and fro like that of a voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he character. dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, well have been cause and effect. It is no wonder that he and his a room. "And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately concealed three gems out of the thirty-nine, with such skill that McCarthy." "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and "As it happens, he spoke of coming into town to-day upon some memoir of him would be complete without some little sketch of deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one." "Why serious?" "Alas!" replied our visitor, "the very horror of my situation What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do nothing with him." "'Never,' said I. carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant have traced her. What has she been saying to you?" shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, "Before the what?" asked Holmes with a start. to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small "Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and together in ignorance of the black cloud which rests upon their closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. continued, disregarding my remonstrance. "He is a man who leads a when your master had gone out." "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he this as likely?" "'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my one corner of the bed. The lash, however, was curled upon itself closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival burst into a hearty fit of laughter.