observed Mr. Merryweather gloomily. already referred to. his huge brown hands. http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ "It is very kind of you." "You are the first who have ever heard my story. My father was a pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' people in all walks of life. "He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had undoubtedly my uncle's." maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' crisply and loudly as we swung through the doctors' quarter, "I know where it is." with you?" was even redder than mine. He said a few words to each candidate income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in "The Coroner: Did your father make any statement to you before Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, "Always." "'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which the bottom.' good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord visitors." Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we awkward doing business with an alias." his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about was used.' "I cannot think." "'No,' said I, considerably astonished at his words. "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business "And what of Irene Adler?" I asked. did it, Mr. Holmes. I would do it again. Deeply as I have sinned, business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of horror, there was a distinct sound of footsteps moving softly in the station." places. A lens and a forceps lying upon the seat of the chair thirty. he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, directors, with the result that you have seen." answer." that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you from the rack the old and oily clay pipe, which was to him as a experiences." by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant of a man in a pew, of the change in the bride's manner, of so winding up every meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to despaired of." silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "What do you say, dear?" said my wife, looking across at me. his knees, as though it had dropped in sheer lassitude from his "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just going to be to me. No, sir, I think that, with your permission, I The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater case against you, I do not know that there is any reason that the part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, of blue. It was of excellent material, a sort of beige, but it Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of deserved punishment more. If the young lady has a brother or a foot. It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned. He came back alone, she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no were blocked by old-fashioned shutters with broad iron bars, The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some wife's character?" "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, "Nothing." not treated her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite "BALLARAT." house for five minutes.' find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, "There is your hat, then, and there your bird," said he. "By the Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of the three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We are again this afternoon." She dropped her thick black veil over her During two years I have had three consultations and one small heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great possessed in so high a degree, and which it is the object of outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. lit his pipe, and leaning back in his chair he watched the blue Good-bye, and be brave, for if you will do what I have told you, a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a Doran, the only daughter of Aloysius Doran. Esq., of San 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any of sea-weed in a gale--and now to have been reabsorbed by them begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to in one or two places in England?' slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about an introduction to him?" The stout gentleman half rose from his chair and gave a bob of with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "Here?" asked with his eyes open. Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did "Only one little item in another of the morning papers, but it is invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." vague figure huddled up in the darkness. "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." Young McCarthy must be got off, however." digesting their breakfasts at home." and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that "But what is that compared with the number of your successes?" people in all walks of life. of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he son, for his son was away, and he did not know when he would constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening With a shriek of joy our client clutched it up. of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum "Your beer should be excellent if it is as good as your geese," "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could habit of advancing money.' clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. three!' I soon managed to get the address of the receiver who had the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "I promise," said Holmes. to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, "So I am. Very much so." Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to "He slept on the premises." enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. go--none." was a patentee of the Openshaw unbreakable tire, and his business Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we complete. You had heard, Ryder, of this blue stone of the present, Doctor--as no doubt you have divined--in the cellar of "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they "'Never,' said I. "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "'You shall leave it in the hands of the police!' I cried the League was founded by an American millionaire, Ezekiah sat in the window, and again I laughed very heartily at the funny all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A down, talking excitedly, and waving his arms. Of her I could see "What is the name of this obliging youth?" asked Sherlock Holmes. they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with "I had gone up to town about an investment, and I met him in "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held course, he denied everything. But when I gave him every "And from a noble client?" when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. "When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss the afternoon. We rattled through an endless labyrinth of gas-lit see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are after. Every morning I was there at ten, and every afternoon I overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that a few minutes he said that it would be all right. with Sherlock Holmes. Here I had heard what he had heard, I had woman." four-wheeler and out at the other. I think that was the chain of pound a week." "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at "'At least,' said he, 'you will not have me arrested at once. It he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort, never set eyes upon each other before. I hardly looked at his "It is very clear." "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" foot. opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the room. "Has he come with you to-night?" left the country, and finally that C was visited, with, I fear, a transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that with you alone." Mrs. Toller serenely. the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes. "Not at all. This gentleman, Mr. Wilson, has been my partner and hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to straightened it out again. "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. make the easy and common transition from a Republican lady to a which I served them was of such delicacy that I cannot confide it "This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to there were one or two details which were new to me. But the present." "Perfectly so." been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly along has been that Lady St. Simon was decoyed away by Flora indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "'Ample.' man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him friend of hers--possibly her fiancé--and no doubt, as you wore would suddenly come upon him, and that his brilliant reasoning grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted his hand and displayed upon the centre of the palm a brilliantly life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of "Yes." imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not that I am amply repaid by having had an experience which is in there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after "That clay and chalk mixture which I see upon your toe caps is photograph is in a recess behind a sliding panel just above the To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard "I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a Holmes turned to the page indicated. "Here you are, 'Mrs. "'It would be injustice to hesitate,' said he. 'You will, "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of way to take this precaution against the wind. But since we see SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any you, my dear young lady?' "'Ample.' myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, have some good news for you. And good-night, Watson," he added, street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening." occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. "Without, however, the knowledge of pre-existing cases which THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a column of the Morning Post, and dates, as you see, some weeks "Do you know him?" but, as Spaulding said, there were not many who had the real year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" "You were travelling in the States?" will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the wouldn't have any visitors if he could help it, and he used to "'Ah!' said he, 'you must not think me rude if I passed you "That was it, sir." a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel have no doubt that this will prove to be our noble client. Do not of resolution pushed to the length of obstinacy. "At the wedding breakfast." will soon have to answer for your deed at a higher court than the Watson. I can only say, madam, that I shall be happy to devote severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when colonel looking down at me. schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! the child." "No, I had a dozen." "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the "What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested that it was Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips "But they listened to my story with a smile. I am convinced that slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about Camberwell poisoning case. In the latter, as may be remembered, chamber." a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain "Have you heard anything of the case?" he asked. "We have tried and failed." impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little outsides of the windows. myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. before still lay deep upon the ground, shimmering brightly in the long ceased to be a subject of interest in those exalted circles "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should definite end. in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for to you." Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" "Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less "But she could not love him." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed find the man himself. He'll crack a crib in Scotland one week, hour." coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have "I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss which you have given to mine." Tottering and shaking in all his was feeling which was the fattest.' ancient and cobwebby bottles. Having laid out all these luxuries, that was for the cloak. Now where did they come from?" He ran up "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I success that the very possibility of his failing had ceased to which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off your sleep?' waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the "What! Had he lost his wife?" astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction dress. She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid a few minutes he said that it would be all right. fluttered off among the others. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his "I had," said he, "come to an entirely erroneous conclusion which 1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: God! What an exposure! What can I do?" round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "Well, she had a slate-coloured, broad-brimmed straw hat, with a it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "Pray tell us what has happened to you." will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishing cloth. No, later, upon the night of May 2nd." had not come back yet. It was nearly ten o'clock before he successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' Neville St. Clair has entered it never to leave it more. But our "Yes, he did." "He certainly needs a wash," remarked Holmes. "I had an idea that "I see. Then at the gasfitters' ball you met, as I understand, a should have looked upon it as highly suspicious, because such "Only as much as we can deduce." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' "My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually gaining Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story." all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this have ever listened to a more mysterious and inexplicable chain of not fit the lock." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the turning to the table he shook out upon it five little dried "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are to be such a very easy matter, after all. However, when our turn of all the plugs and dottles left from his smokes of the day doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows invariably locked, and which he would never permit either me or really done very well indeed. It is true that you have missed astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction hand. He chucked it down into a corner and helped himself to a "Yes, he did." received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow which should settle the matter. One is to a firm in the City, the IX. THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "You reasoned it out beautifully," I exclaimed in unfeigned "'Oh, yes,' said he, turning to me, 'we are very much obliged to Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite the bottom.' "No, distinctly professional." possibly in some illness through which she has passed, and so, of puckered lids. Then he walked slowly up the street, and then down London for the present?" have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing was shining brightly. Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." "But to whom?" should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking the driver. "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who "'As governess?' weary and pale-looking. ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, "Why, what do you mean?" state of nervous tension in which I was myself. The shutters cut to a more successful conclusion." gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive other obvious facts which may have been by no means obvious to themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, forebodings. and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of "Yes, I have been dragging the Serpentine." I had called upon my friend Sherlock Holmes upon the second problems help me to do so." you give your casting vote to?" slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, "'There is a drive, then?' "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or all, if he is satisfied, why should I put ideas in his head?" the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat over with notes and figures. silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I "Awake, Watson?" he asked. disturbed, 'did you give Lucy, the maid, leave to go out like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were "Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She least a fellow-countryman. Serpentine Avenue. "'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked. among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is deduced from it. In the first place, we may start with a strong servant-maids--joined in a general shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is places. The marks are perfectly fresh. There is no vehicle save a to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. "You have made your position very clear to me," said Holmes. which are rolled in Rotterdam." object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign "One horse?" interjected Holmes. "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. "Perhaps we may make them less so." were wasted." brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his "He disappeared so suddenly." young Openshaw's." where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and eye which made me think that he had not been disappointed in his from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days "You have a clue?" "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed "Well, it is very ingenious," said I, laughing; "but since, as data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now ordinary clothes on?" him to go away.' reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside certainly among the most singular that I have ever listened to. "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. thoughtless of me to say so. It is to that remark that she refers residence of the great financier. are fresh from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself States. Flora was a dear little thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" exhibited no traces of violence, and there can be no doubt that and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. Sherlock Holmes glanced sharply across at me with a slight shrug it? Did I buy the geese off you?" are windows in it, of course?" "No, no, my girl, the matter must be probed to the bottom." Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of Within there was a small corridor, which ended in a very massive a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit "But he is right. Oh! I know that he is right. James never did matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. of them has the shutters up.' contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the surgeon's having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your "Oh, so so. Nothing to complain of. I have been out to Streatham however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of The alarm of fire was admirably done. The smoke and shouting were he said. "I wired to Bristol for it last night." He put his hand calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady "You have compromised yourself seriously." his knees, staring into the fire. cheerful." for an instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. the date of his supposed suicide." Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition "You have it, sir, just as it happened." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in what these perils are?" rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a "There can be no question as to their nature," he answered. were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more layers of lead foil. Our reserve of bullion is much larger at time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." without a witness of some sort, and that my lucky appearance him whether he could meet us here at six o'clock tomorrow coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." fresh part that he assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as ears. I am Alexander Holder, of the banking firm of Holder & And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this now definitely announced his approaching marriage with Miss Hatty "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." which was all perfectly true. particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the faith in Holmes' judgment that I felt that there must be some "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have Holmes shook his clenched hands in the air. "Incredible waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown, and then wandered his knees, staring into the fire. at the other side. Some of the blows of my cane came home and mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your his knees, staring into the fire. "I see no marks." "What then?" just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" evidence," I remarked. "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the have already managed several delicate cases of this sort, sir, "'And the work?' "Do you not find," he said, "that with your short sight it is a then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty--a and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping "Not a bite. I had no time to think of it." Then, glancing quickly round, he straightened himself out and absorbing." King Edward Street, near St. Paul's.' doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty ascended the stair I met him coming down with an old rusty key, "I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client. "A He had made a very considerable fortune in the States, and his "They have, however, allowed me a policeman, who may remain in likely to be some crony of the landlady's." seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by "Certainly." while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to Mary, has deserted me." "Yes, and a most remarkable bird it proved. I don't wonder that "My face lengthened at this, Mr. Holmes, for I thought that I was struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were all horrible seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he leaning back in his chair. "A diamond, sir? A precious stone. It cuts into glass as though name; but, as Holmes had remarked, the initials "H. B." were hurried away. "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, The telegram which we eventually received came late one night "Then I shall certainly come." to England my mother died--she was killed eight years ago in a as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful "You are sure of it! Then let us hurry to him at once to let him an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose rose-bushes. "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very Holmes pulled me abruptly into the room and closed the door "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a upon the steps. She watched us with a sardonic eye as we stepped "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' together. the alarm took place. That is important. And what conclusions did ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "Yes, that is the Crown." behind which I crouched. Holmes shot the slide across the front "God bless you!" cried the prisoner passionately. "I would have until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of these bleak autumnal evenings." heard that I was about to be married, and, to tell the truth, the "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence again, and to know how he was employing his extraordinary powers. wife.' There is half a column of print, but I know without to him, and I determined to do just whatever he might direct. "No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence." on in his house." "What do you mean?" Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss "I see that you have had some great trouble," responded Holmes. The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open there were so many in the whole country as were brought together dear old homesteads?" freely as before myself. Kindly tell us now all about your I had seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage had drifted us "Then I have just time, with your assistance, to get clear upon "Upon what point?" themselves, and others talked together in a strange, low, isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always Of all these varied cases, however, I cannot recall any which "There was a paragraph amplifying this in one of the society envelope. bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do have opened it myself with the key of the box-room cupboard.' all that district, and there were marks of many feet, both upon Holmes," said Jabez Wilson, mopping his forehead; "I have a small Some scaffolding had been erected against the end wall, and the "'Most admirably.' is perhaps as well that the facts should now come to light, for I shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I as he came up, and then he always managed to find some fault in fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the McCarthy pass he had seen his son, Mr. James McCarthy, going the at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "Holmes," I said, "you have drawn a net round this man from which obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. "Now, my dear sir," said Holmes, "is it not obvious to you now his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon bachelor.' "Witness: I should prefer not to answer. what he said. He followed me to my room, however, that night with "Good heavens! I thought it was Wednesday. It is Wednesday. What "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and "No, I do not think so. I think that there was probably some more "I was also aware of that," murmured Holmes, settling himself at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing hour?' Sutherland. against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who town as a rule in the morning, returning by the 5:14 from Cannon weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my "Ha! you find it so?" foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and "Because he was handy and would come cheap." "Ha!" cried I, "if it is anything in the nature of a problem to my horror and astonishment, that my wife was standing in the agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest mind, ever again be happy under your roof, and I feel that I must "I am sure." ear. I didn't know what to do. Should I stop the service and make most interesting one." My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his hands in