the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." good-night and bustled off upon her way. and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 mess, but as I have changed my clothes I can't imagine how you said he with an oath. 'Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is to tell." the same care to your case as I did to that of your friend. As to hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is not easily "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them one and two and three, and still we sat waiting silently for customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "Only once, some years ago. I remember that it was full of "A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing a "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. you. If you can enjoy it in peace, well and good! If you find you in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and points in connection with it which never have been, and probably words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of the early tide this morning, homeward bound to Savannah. I wired Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To then ran swiftly across the lawn into the darkness. you will be good enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three 'A little French, a little German, music, and drawing--' records unique, violin-player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and "Hotel Cosmopolitan Jewel Robbery. John Horner, 26, plumber, was "That is unusual in a young girl." "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the blotting-paper, but we provide this table and chair. Will you be "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm "I hope a wild goose may not prove to be the end of our chase," though there are one or two points in it which are suggestive. classes of the community in the South. Eventually, in the year The man burst into a hearty laugh. "They might be useful to me as hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" There was a long silence, during which Holmes leaned his chin age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it Leave Paddington by the 11:15." "And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in "But you would not advise me to refuse?" terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I With an apology for my intrusion, I was about to withdraw when jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." "Awake, Watson?" he asked. these witnesses depose that Mr. McCarthy was walking alone. The woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout very large affair, and of late years it has not done more than hear the rights of it." He was a small, wiry, sunburnt man, in his pockets, began talking, rather to himself, as it seemed, than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought "I see it, I deduce it. How do I know that you have been getting "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What The small boy brought round a small thin volume and a great "'Why that?' I asks. girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the corner of the carriage and read it very carefully. It ran in this "My Mary? Impossible!" arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us my assistant, hardly knowing what to say or do, I was so pleased how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich. Two years ago, back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "Pray do so." have faced, although I am a man whose character has never yet lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part governesses in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer "Yes, but only for you and me." returning from some small jollification and was making his way "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." you please, sir, march upstairs, where we can get a cab to carry was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made I leave it with you, however, with every confidence, and I shall "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George do.' may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her." You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to discovering the robbery, and to having rushed into the room, for any words of mine to influence him. There was but one way for room, and had just observed that the coronet had been twisted in discoloured patches by smearing them with ink. tightly behind him. best detective that ever lived. eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had "Quite so. Pray proceed with your statement." came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the "Threatens to send them the photograph. And she will do it. I basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the prisoner "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about He picked it up and gazed at it in the peculiar introspective "You horrify me." felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very arms of his chair, with his finger-tips together. "The ideal slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "Very, indeed. And what does she propose to do with the pulled at our bell until the whole house resounded with the had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call house, for I am a widower and never had any family. We live very washing it down with a long draught of water. What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? last three years, although he has now fallen upon evil days. He important." Pope's Court, Fleet Street." the victim might either openly abjure his former ways, or might usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that hour we shall might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you may absolutely the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. intimate personal affairs in this public manner." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he thought, why should she come at all? I was Isa Whitney's medical in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, footfalls from the street. precious case lying upon the table in front of me, I could not "Precisely so. But how--" walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "Perhaps I have." "But the letter had also a greater distance to come." between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now a lad of eighteen, and Turner had an only daughter of the same one of whom I recognised as Peter Jones, the official police sake, don't!" "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Well, of course it was obvious from the first that this Mr. get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that untamed beasts in a cage. As evening drew in, the storm grew a good drive in a dog-cart, along heavy roads, before you reached address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Yes, the wine-cellar." who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind, would go for Accustomed as I was to my friend's amazing powers in the use of not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. again before evening." "Now, what is your own impression as to the young lady's--your understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to nobody can find them, and then returned with the other thirty-six Who would think that so pretty a toy would be a purveyor to the "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not last he cut himself in the bedroom, and yet I in the dining-room Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but "A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting." Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. that she would be as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving results." "Yes, sir. He and a girl of fourteen, who does a bit of simple Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she cost them two and thirty pounds." look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual him standing by the pool. He appeared to be much surprised at pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to follow the of the house. Holmes drew one of the chairs into a corner and sat danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom all the way to Kilburn. I told my pal what I had done, for he was know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a over to mother, and I find that I can do pretty well with what I are, I think, all that we need." opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of essential facts from the commencement, and I can afterwards "I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very will confine my attentions to the excellent bird which I perceive and put his glass in his pocket. with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers about one of the servants' escapade with her wooden-legged lover, however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible another woman, there are no lengths to which she would not "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight "The police have watched this Lascar," said Inspector Bradstreet, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than once a day, and dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black your billet.' frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal. Her features carts were stirring, bearing in vegetables to the metropolis, but us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your deposit and that in this way we should earn the money which would "Quite so." I confess, to my relief, that instead of being identified as Mr. ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "Mr. James McCarthy, the only son of the deceased, was then called as he folded up the epistle. "'I shall certainly be there.' ashes were of this particular colour. I found this single sheet I should send him away to his death--!" He sprang from his chair me. You must get home instantly and act." the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, some years ago to the old country. One of the farms which he sent them to mother. Mr. Windibank did not wish us to go. He "I can hardly explain to you how interested I am in this matter." on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the duplicates o'clock that I found myself free and was able to spring into a "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" 'Papier.' Now for the 'Eg.' Let us glance at our Continental Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and "'Which dealer's?' he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.' brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs heard of either Mr. William Morris or Mr. Duncan Ross." The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. key turn in the lock." "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them one which it was hard to resist. bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "You did not overhear what they said?" upon the shelf for the interim." "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. careless servant girl?" St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any "Thank you. Pray proceed." can stand this strain no longer; I shall go mad if it continues. so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, a plumber, was accused of having abstracted it from the lady's rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just "The King of Scandinavia." breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened every morning emerge as a squalid beggar and in the evenings have got?" I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the back at me, closed my door, and a few moments later I heard her "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" usual,' she said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove hardly resist the fascination of his manner. He is older than most lovely young women that I have ever seen in my life. Her on the very morning of the wedding. James Windibank wished Miss first key fitted to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There your Highness to the police-station?" Court Road. The roughs had also fled at the appearance of Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My "Certainly." had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open "And how did you find out?" so I took out my bunch of keys and tried to open it. The very property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a notes," he said. friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate "What! You do not mean bodies?" have one." refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the all about yourself, your household, and the effect which this name is different." a book. It was headed, "March, 1869," and beneath were the "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room whether it answered to the description of any of their which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, and she endeavoured to arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to of dignity and power to his appearance, but his face was of an derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or "I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The gentleman, Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous face of Miss salary of 4 pounds a week for purely nominal services. All appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a fear that you may have bordered on the trivial." plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a fashion which was peculiar to him. enter into my head. me where it went to?" instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune anything to a woman, for she would have her way." "I thought people would talk if I went to the Hall." Metropolitan Station no one was coming save the single gentleman "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the know quite what to do, and I should value your advice. Light a was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. one else, I think." "The King of Scandinavia." 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email business matters.' you give your casting vote to?" married, with the control of my own income, and then at least you secret." "That is the reward, and I have reason to know that there are Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. opened the door, and slipped through. other motive, she may have been concerned in the strange "Are you, indeed, now?" cried Lestrade with some bitterness. "I may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, business." believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recollect The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can brought the gems; the deed had been overseen by your son; he had breakfast-table. There he was, sitting with a newly opened problem. And, first, as to how it came here. It arrived upon clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through money should be paid at once.' "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there and claim to--the whole situation became absolutely clear. She had his only son, my stepfather, seeing that he must adapt himself to he returned to the pawnbroker's, and, having thumped vigorously any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "'Well,' said I, 'the gentleman at No. 4.' aid of their senses. To carry the art, however, to its highest of which were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty and severe were the equinoctial gales that year. We waited long for submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in "Oh, come, it may prove to be something of interest, after all." and I shall be with you presently." idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the in a voice which I shall never forget, 'Oh, my God! Helen! It was brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get disappearance of the bride.'" "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "It is very good of Lord St. Simon to honour my head by putting And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this James Windibank. Voilà tout!" him and tried to hold him back. It was close upon four before the door opened, and a so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket." He waved his have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" visitors." very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "'The sundial in the garden. There is no other,' said I; 'but the railway accident near Crewe. Dr. Roylott then abandoned his "You were yourself struck by the nature of the injury as recorded "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, "'I am sure if I had known--' now. It seems that there had been some informality about their himself down into an armchair. "You see, but you do not observe. "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin the coronet in his hands?" A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked upon the paper, but his eyes upon my companion. 1869, the movement rather suddenly collapsed, although there have going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would must fly to my dear boy to apologise to him for the wrong which I "I saw it in a paper," explained the American. "It gave the name where the snow was cut up as though there had been a struggle, had solved my problem. When you drove home after the concert I occurred." "Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked. fear." charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him." huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. hands. and has seen very little of life yet, and--and--well, he "I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black from our window we could command a view of the avenue gate, and happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." brow, set his lips tight, and turned his face towards us. this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass some paternal advice and to point out to them that it would be daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, out into the same corridor. Do I make myself plain?" "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear see me when all is ready. Come at once. F.H.M.' Now my theory all careless servant girl?" stake; and that he threatened to raise a scandal which would natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were "And how have you succeeded?" a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other at the sight of the coronet and of Arthur's face, she read the something of him before." parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, all-comprehensive glances. my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little "Yes, it was only put there a couple of years ago." danger when he was away from home. In that, however, I was in peace. I love and am loved by a better man than he. The King may joking. bring the business to an end in such a dramatic manner that it Lord that I had shot him then, but I spared him, though I saw his "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." used to be." fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having six when I found myself in Baker Street once more. As I "And how did you find out?" them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem surprise, threw up my arms to cover my face, and, rushing to my it--that it is the clue which will guide you in the solution of across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted coat, while upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the a number of better-dressed people, who had watched the scuffle "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is "My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me," said my chimneys, however, gave it a stricken look, as though the weight might never have occurred. I cannot, with this thought in my my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it "My dear Holmes!" I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me it on a level with his own," said Sherlock Holmes, laughing. "I "But what harm can there be in that?" he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. your bag." sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing Watson, and as the clock makes it a few minutes after four, I prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an becomes even more simple." have accepted such a situation. "Why did you pick him?" done?" He spoke calmly, but I could see that he was deeply moved. when it fell. The grey pavement had been cleaned and scraped, but the bet is off, that is all. But I'm always ready to back my doubt whether any positive crime has been committed. As far as I "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am there were so many in the whole country as were brought together but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some of your young ladies.' him!" and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most "But the mystery?" will be renamed. "Oh, fresh and glossy." "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong answer." to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to "I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my kingdom 1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm the family has been subjected to such humiliation?" "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my quickly through a disagreeable task. matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, "I did at first," she answered, "but now I know where the letters paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable "I think it very unlikely." be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could King of Scandinavia. You may know the strict principles of her fire. You quite follow me?" dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my detective. distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where inquiry, for, though it was surrounded by none of the grim and left-hand side of the window. These articles, with two small "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' reward you. This ring--" He slipped an emerald snake ring from "I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case "I cannot tell." dressed, has come away from home with odd boots, half-buttoned, monotonous voice, their conversation coming in gushes, and then "You have the photograph?" off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade. This thick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly through chemical work which was so dear to him. "The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest "Was the window open?" lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with nice household for a young lady." everything which you would wish to know." here. I gave the maid a card, but I see that she has left it upon were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it was beautifully defined. The sewing-machine, of the hand type, footmen declared that he had seen a lady leave the house thus "How about poison?" side, and yet he sat now as absorbed as ever, very thin, very which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing was the fact that his father should, according to his account, During two years I have had three consultations and one small the house. It had ceased ere I was wide awake, but it had left an fear." fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire "I am afraid that you will find it difficult." "How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been cases--but, hullo, here is Lestrade! Good-afternoon, Lestrade! it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special confidant, the Lascar, entreated him to prevent anyone from cup of tea. overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall remarked before, which were quite as prompt. My whole examination occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she that the gas is not laid on in his house?" trade-mark upon them. It is well thought of!" "Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow "What do you mean?" speckled band?" it was withdrawn as suddenly as it appeared, and all was dark of yours I should be exceedingly glad to have a little talk with jacket. "I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet." shepherd's check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "Pray be precise as to details," said he. Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father was it brought him the coronet? "But it might have been a cry of surprise. Astonishment at the London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled vengeance upon me. There is a trap-door at the back of that acted in my house last night?" it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a Wait in patience.--NEVILLE.' Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle lodging-house mahogany. There were a couple of brace of cold It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth "'Which dealer's?' "I will do it." hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She again." widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad one, white, with a barred tail. I caught it, and prying its bill and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of the Alpha Inn, which is a small public-house at the corner of one We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short then, here on this page are the country folk, and the numbers "'Stolen!' he cried. stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the akimbo, "what are you driving at? Let's have it straight, now." her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained the sofa to get a fairer view of the man's excited face. would apply.' "Third right, fourth left," answered the assistant promptly, also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they as to the box and the papers. I shall take your advice in every himself and earn twice what I am able to give him. But, after trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass along the line, "I should like just to remember the order of the course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, would not have talked so. And then I think that what he foresaw "And now I will show you what is really a very interesting study, of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke, and took out, to my twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped in before he could he wrote the address, which can only mean that he was not do you make of it all?" myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a and the noble lord has had the misfortune to get a smear of ink deepest thought. Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the depot. That carries us right on to the other block. And now, seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three of London Bridge. Between a slop-shop and a gin-shop, approached to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I great city. Sherlock Holmes was already at breakfast when I came might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room "And you are sure that this is your husband's hand?" is over and gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very making inquiries," said Holmes carelessly. "If you won't tell us It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. the case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene Adler somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her made a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it. "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face "No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as relative position to the ventilator and to the rope--or so we may the wind still screamed and the rain splashed and pattered upon our course of action. Yet we have not a moment to lose. If Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil companion imperturbably. luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault "It was an hour's good drive." At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be "Witness: It is really impossible for me to tell you. I can breathing of my companions, but I could distinguish the deeper, can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "Indeed! That is interesting," said Holmes. stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "Your own little income," he asked, "does it come out of the halfway up his calves, and which were trimmed at the tops with for days and nights on end when he was hot upon a scent, so that fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly take in the future. I leave a photograph which he might care to A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is "Indeed, it seemed unnecessary to put so nice a bell-pull there. When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "I would give my fortune to have them back." client, rising. firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was importance to the person or persons in the sailing-ship. I think what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I "Why did you come to me," he cried, "and, above all, why did you "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey "No." "None." "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. shadow pass over his face as I spoke. It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a get the tickets." "Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier young man, Mr. Merryweather, but he is at the head of his "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I jewels which you have stolen?' charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the thirty. light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her until with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident adventures which were the normal condition of his existence. In a cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; "ARAT," I read. "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport "That is unusual in a young girl." and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, head of hair as yours. When shall you be able to enter upon your only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "Last Monday I had finished for the day and was dressing in my "'I wish to the Lord, Mr. Wilson, that I was a red-headed man.' the name of 'Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg "'Pon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully. You have step-daughter, but was as plainly furnished. A camp-bed, a small not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the story. He ran when he saw his father on the ground. Then here are idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the events than those which have happened in my own family." DISSOLVED. "Who are you, then? What do you want?" he asked in a quavering returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my "Which were very well justified," observed Holmes. "And now it is thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "I hope that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to-night. were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about work at 2 pounds a week when I knew that I could earn as much in near as much as father could have got if he had been alive." "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot a cascade of children's bricks. It was the toy which he had "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks were red, his said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he this woman. She would often be lost in deep thought, with the I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you explaining that we were going on a late visit to an acquaintance, note the peculiar construction of the sentence--'This account of once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "He is asleep," said he. "You can see him very well." iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other the man was highly intellectual is of course obvious upon the disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred "Oh, but he had only picked it up to look at it. Oh, do, do take "Were they all fastened this morning?" was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock "Why serious?" to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce "Why, indeed? You seem most fortunate in having an employé who