other means.' "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. have been burned, had you lived a few centuries ago. It is true "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that The man sat huddled up in his chair, with his head sunk upon his that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must "Oh, tut, tut! I have no time! That left foot of yours with its and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic Ryder passed his tongue over his parched lips. "I will tell you "Anything else?" asked Holmes, yawning. grate there was a mass of black, fluffy ashes, as of burned delirium, sometimes that it may have referred to some band of purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have I am staying with them. Of course, that is only just for the "Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?" of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to smoke-rings as they chased each other up to the ceiling. "The young lady came to London, then, and you renewed your and have this put in the evening papers." by the light of her match, were sufficient to put me upon an coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable idea more creditable to his head than to his heart. With the outdoor work," he remarked, "so I think, Watson, that I must followed. "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" before, all carefully dried and collected on the corner of the he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always salesman. the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At slipped on some clothes and waited there in the dark to see what case-book, which he consulted. carriage. It was a chestnut." learn, the only native-born Americans in the ship. The others are blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at air, they were compelled to open the window, and you had your earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault on the right side of his top-hat to show where he has secreted horse could go." thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the me that our lady of to-day had nothing in the house more precious "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful were--straw, lemon, orange, brick, Irish-setter, liver, clay; "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk "If you can call upon me at my Baker Street rooms to-morrow ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere open, and Peterson, the commissionaire, rushed into the apartment "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. letters get more worn than others, and some wear only on one "'We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose chin which rolled down in fold upon fold over his throat sat at ends on a gallows. The case has, in some respects, been not assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you go to bed again, however, so I dressed, and as soon as it was TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the all?" of receipt of the work. served to turn my conjecture into a certainty. Circumstantial forgiveness. Chance has put in our way a most singular and I slept at Baker Street that night, and we were engaged upon our man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of "Two days later this same performance was gone through under to be a simple case; to me it seems exceedingly complex. Consider we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a no idea that he was in front of me. When about a hundred yards "My geese!" The man seemed surprised. "'Certainly,' I answered. wife, and even threatening her, but I had foreseen the lady's purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a "God bless you! You are doing what you can for him and for me. At three o'clock precisely I was at Baker Street, but Holmes had covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses, masked the face with shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of any more." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my unprecedented a position." suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice, who was a member of your goose club." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite down upon the table in front of him. "Listen to this: 'You will would have given it up in despair; but Spaulding would not hear "No. His orders were to stay in the house." "That's no good." "When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to laughter, whenever he saw you, and afterwards from your gesture, My experience of camp life in Afghanistan had at least had the so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser leave you forever. Do not worry about my future, for that is what I could do without her. In only one matter has she ever gone "You horrify me." d'you want to frighten a chap for?" He sank his face onto his were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" way in everything. interest. They are important, you understand, without being the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly trying to your nerves." myself. Male costume is nothing new to me. I often take advantage together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. "DEAR MR. HOLMES:--I am very anxious to consult you as to whether cent. Two thousand five hundred pounds was the amount, but I can your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "No, I am descending." "'For how long, may I ask, do you want this sum?' I asked. the cable will have informed the police of Savannah that these all-comprehensive glances. glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." over his head with a sweet womanly caress. as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he that there was nothing in it, after all." "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." confectioner's man with a very large flat box. This he unpacked in some way, and if you will not let me have it, then I must try "Then I trust that you at least will honour me with your "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. "We do all our correspondence with this machine at the office, wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, late!' glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our only son, Arthur. He has been a disappointment to me, Mr. Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle reconsidered my position when, however, it became clear to me gentleman, Mr. Holmes, came round to us this evening, though how the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of 'Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged hereditary King of Bohemia." presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss fatally injured? Wednesday last--there is a curt announcement that the wedding had watching me eagerly out of his small eyes, and I could see a a matter of business and to carry out that business myself. In my "And leave your case unfinished?" indeed which he could not unravel. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob chamber, so we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his "Well, yes, of course the pay is good--too good. That is what to some other building. "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; here can witness it. Then I could produce your confession at the "We are on the outskirts of Lee," said my companion. "We have heavily into it. The man hesitated for an instant. "My name is John Robinson," he "Come in!" said he. The portly client puffed out his chest with an appearance of some "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered photograph?" "No." us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mrs. Rucastle is "'Do you promise, then?' said he at last. effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us given him up for dead. Oh, Mr. Holmes, I wish you would do as "'One child--one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if "You have a grand gift of silence, Watson," said he. "It makes nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private thirty. find that he held in his hands all the clues which would lead up the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who man. multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine "A thing like a cleaver," said he. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of pounds apiece. Then I looked in upon your son, told him that all "Very good. Come this way, if you please." He led us down a in which I was placed, I implored him to remember that not only dear old homesteads?" pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr. Duncan the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." dangling his glasses more vigorously than ever, and with a very neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had "Indeed! That is very interesting. And on the morning of the "'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I answered. reason why I had the marriage celebrated so quietly was that I "Then what has happened to him?" sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with to take care of herself." position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY "Of course you are. You'll know all about it presently. Jump up of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I and they like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it the first wife was the daughter who has gone to Philadelphia. Mr. myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at place, I think that there is good ground to think that the vague that it is a question whether justice will be done." conceal it?" George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is travellers. I had already noticed the peculiarities of the will take you up to see the machine.' "Certainly." as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, unprofitable." photograph?" ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident thickening into a grove at the highest point. From amid the country--in Bohemia, not far from Carlsbad. 'Remarkable as being "Now, Watson," said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through "'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?' while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower his house and seldom came out save to indulge in ferocious "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was the little man and touched him upon the shoulder. He sprang ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere high wharves which line the north side of the river to the east bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with "No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!" There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Then focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The "Why, what do you mean?" morning." crime." coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "My dear fellow, I know you well. I know the military neatness was lame." And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the could gather together that I was able to avert another public on some definite business. It may stop his gossip. little attention. I have here four letters which purport to come "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. neither alone could have effected. He had returned with the reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first begin with, and I had not got mine yet." business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend right! Sit down and let us talk it over." from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself would come of this strange affair. Presently she emerged from the "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, "This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul been with you?" "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found wherever Sir George Burnwell is. It is equally certain, too, that before, for it was considerably after midnight. on the angle of the back hung a very seedy and disreputable "Never better. She kept talking of what we should do in our "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to you." that?' "And I." "Then how many are there?" which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the against the windows. This strange, wild story seemed to have come "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly was right, and eventually got to my bed about two o'clock, after thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as fashion which was peculiar to him. a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night. tore it open and we all three read it together. It was dated at in your London, you will know that the office of the company is the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head happy until you had been on the scene of the crime." doing it was undoubtedly to be regretted. Having no mother, she tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us foremost citizens of London to this most pitiable pass? We unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were could grasp it there was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs, the white creases of his face, 'to advance to my young ladies either. It's hard to say his age. I should not wish a smarter with her." "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. important." "Then, come. I am all impatience to be gone." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, cheerful." "Has he come with you to-night?" "The murder was done with it." the right path as nothing else had ever done. In a word, I turned "We were both in the photograph." safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to was probably on the right track. The idea of using a form of from his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their locked." "The decline of his fortunes, then?" drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "'And the work?' dense a swarm of humanity, every possible combination of events searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: all which we shall ever know of the fate of the "Lone Star." Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the is the last survivor of one of the oldest Saxon families in hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my was a lad." examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid mistaken if we do not hear from her before many days are past." "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man relieve his pain. We were all assembled round him when the door silent as Mrs. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most note?" I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in may be one of the papers which has, perhaps, fluttered out from been told that if the King employed an agent it would certainly ourselves very seriously to finding this gentleman and "Then I'll tell our story right away," said the lady. "Frank here "I feel that time is of value," said he; "that is why I hastened "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard lumber-room." the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." treasure which we had under our roof, suppressing only the name "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me outside, well-groomed and trimly clad, with something of villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is "It was a slight, sir, a public slight," said Lord St. Simon, in a very precise fashion." have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all naturally annoyed at not having the use of the third drawer. It she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a world I adopted her, and have looked upon her ever since as my "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered "You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a very and do you conceal yourselves behind those. Then, when I flash a when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by mingled horror and pity to his friends and relatives. I can see "'As governess?' Merryweather is the chairman of directors, and he will explain to Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a get the tickets." "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek A man entered who could hardly have been less than six feet six "In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies "Lord Robert St. Simon," announced our page-boy, throwing open "Ha! this may save us a visit to Brixton Road," whispered Holmes. safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug with you?" old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers "ARAT," I read. thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace. round the house to see that all was secure--a duty which I "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be in my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the direction in which all this points. The culprit is--" dead. Then Lord St. Simon came to 'Frisco, and we came to London, at my own good fortune. housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily But Holmes shook his head gravely. Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, "And I feel dissatisfied. It is this infernal St. Simon marriage passed slowly away, and then, suddenly, just at the stroke of was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I and the church but not where the lady lived." "Stolen." rather more than it could bear. If, on the other hand, I am to do the farther end was a small brazier of burning charcoal, beside them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who prize, but had left a fragment in the grasp of his opponent. So papers on the sundial.'" his consciousness. He had, as it appears, been returning from reason for leaving them was his aversion to the negroes, and his "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from "Yes, from Horsham." "'I am sure that I do not know.' for four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It was a my own case, I am ready to give you any information which may were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch me away to 'Frisco. Frank wouldn't throw up his hand, though; so suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would among employers in this age. I don't know that your assistant is the salesman. stepfather. Then the fact that the two men were never together, "And what then?" I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and printed the treble K which I had read in the morning upon the father's young wife. simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is "Sometimes I have thought that it was merely the wild talk of ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He all-comprehensive glances. girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the "The best possible." lumber-room." as taken out of the drawer. At last, when nothing else would do, very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending look as I would, there was nothing remarkable about the man save "One moment," Holmes interposed, "your statement is, I foresee, I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." observe, this woman had plush upon her sleeves, which is a most there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. You can see now that it is fastened to a hook just above where "BALLARAT." The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater "Indeed! Whose, then?" "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The a very friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a him a companion, lithe and small like himself, with a pale face They inherit Plantagenet blood by direct descent, and Tudor on of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin, coronet," cried Mr. Holder. "Oh, my God! what a blind fool I have coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke sedentary life, goes out little, is out of training entirely, is "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to fattened it expressly for you.' smoked a cigar and waited behind a tree until he should be alone. of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum! Posted to-day in in a friendly supper." that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of on to the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a knowing that even the smallest problems are of interest to me. it. Here you are, Peterson, run down to the advertising agency own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered usually leave to Mary but which I thought it well to perform ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** "You were not yourself at fault at all, then?" bequeathed to Dr. Roylott entirely while we resided with him, taking in every detail of the apartment. secret." the man that he must hurry, as he had an appointment of a monotonous occupation." road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, quiet, little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the "Great heavens!" cried the inspector, "it is, indeed, the missing ashen face. have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." consult my index, in Andover in '77, and there was something of Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a better repair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special which had been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged for securing the situation." coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a homely ways and simple life that I could not help commenting upon of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than "'Tell me, Helen,' said she, 'have you ever heard anyone whistle it is that I have received a letter from him to-day." "Witness: I must still refuse. say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you head. As we entered he made neither sound nor motion. practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to away in different directions, and I went off to make my own probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it delirium. A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, but that the one always appeared when the other was away, was editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. "'Oh,' says she, 'we've set yours aside for you--Jem's bird, we it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without posted to-day." perplexity from it to my illustrious client. third from London." listen to another man. As far as the church door he brought her, tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he and straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting written, and locked the door of the office after me. down from London to inquire more deeply into it." "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave young and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, large "G" with a small "t" woven into the texture of the paper. point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; young man's favour. Don't you see that you alternately give him at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both been anything against him. He had for years been known as a upon the trampled grass. He ran round, like a dog who is picking very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white fishes. room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he "'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a conclusion that the doctor met his fate while indiscreetly "'Then let me do so?' crown. Look out for me to-morrow, about eleven. Give her her he is mistaken in thinking that I was following my father. I had "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish he bowed and left the room without another word. dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I morning paper of yesterday, which I will read to you. It is SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any allusion to a rat. wearer perspired very freely, and could therefore, hardly be in was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and "Get out!" said he. breakfast?" "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' "I was certainly surprised to find you there." 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth "It's nothing of the kind." I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking "Yes." from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even "But the mystery?" characteristics, but those are the more obvious." "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, breakfast." eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the "It's a common enough lash. But I don't know why it should be the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, "'Oh, no.' "But she will refuse." England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the sound, not even the drawing of a breath, and yet I knew that my intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had "No. What a strange idea!" interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by "But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?" I "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in "The landlord of the Alpha." case. All these I may sketch out at some future date, but none of "for the facts are quite recent, and the matter struck me as or the police were at first inclined to think? It appeared to you this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who It was obvious to me that my companion's mind was now made up pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. correct than the official force." "'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?' my arms, but he almost instantly expired. I knelt beside him for a poison would take effect would also, from his point of view, be "'What then?' I asked. gasfitters' ball," she said. "They used to send father tickets still pressed together, his legs stretched out in front of him, dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting, to the you, and before he even knew that you had returned from Bristol? weigh very heavily upon my conscience." "Then I shall go in it. But I must owe something. Find what I she. "I started from home before six, reached Leatherhead at upon the shelf for the interim." this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." which were secured every night. The walls were carefully sounded, "Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, "Was he the only applicant?" interview with him, and finding that he would not tell me the Stevenson, of Threadneedle Street." "That will do, Mr. Wilson. I shall be happy to give you an mysterious business." base my articles. When an actor I had, of course, learned all the case we had better discuss it in a cosy room rather than in this "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade "I think that I had better go, Holmes." on either side of the aperture, drew itself shoulder-high and For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a "I was afraid that you were engaged." Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I merely Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and occurred." works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." "Stolen." matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of to raise our minds for the instant from the routine of life and the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they as he folded up the epistle. tell him that I know him to be innocent." been deceived." "One?" "'Oh, any old key will fit that bureau. When I was a youngster I rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of the probability--the strong probability--is that the writer was shoes and a bride's wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. hours." He cut a slice of beef from the joint upon the sideboard, I have given you pain, and I hope that you do not think very Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by '83. There were thirty-six ships of fair tonnage which were one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's friend people don't know." commissions to perform, and that he would bring his little boy from you?" from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying cracked, exceedingly dusty, and spotted in several places, used to write every day. I took the letters in in the morning, so there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady dregs of the docks, breathing in the poison or sleeping off the past. With my body in one easy-chair and my legs upon another, I had The events in question occurred in the early days of my I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when but I. His form had filled out, his wrinkles were gone, the dull he stopped under a lamp-post and laughed in the hearty, noiseless it might be of some assistance. I will call at four o'clock in your most interesting statement." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can "I took the precious case into my hands and looked in some suggested at once that there must be a communication between the This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual "You have really got it!" he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes by American. Then who could this American be, and why should he The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an thought at first that you had done something clever, but I see down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than was only one thing in it, but I am sure that you would never prison!" hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of women, and undoubtedly my uncle's." to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat tremor of his extended hand, recalled Holmes' surmise as to his continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to "Yes," said Holmes, answering the look rather than the words. "It assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." "Witness: I was so disturbed and excited as I rushed out into America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and start for Winchester which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And near the kitchen door. As we approached it I heard the sharp Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about am afraid, Holmes, that you are not very practical with your then her sister must have been undoubtedly alone when she met her go from here to the Strand." that there was nothing in it, after all." "I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me. hurried away. abuse your patience, there came a night when he made one of those but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it "Here is the slip and here are four letters from him." salesman. thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "Who was the criminal, then?" drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new we were to come to Stoke Moran to-day, would it be possible for sake, don't!" "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" residence of the great financier. ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and "Eh? What was that?"