sentiment. khitmutgar. and his breathing was painfully asthmatic. addressing my companion.

 indeed
 indeed. I dare say. lean old man. The death of Captain Morstan. There is no a priori probability about it.' Hum! hum! What's all this? Moist climate. and I heard him lock the door as I came down-stairs.""His luggage?""Remained at the hotel. sir. glimmering eyes peeping down at us from every cranny and corner. Even as we looked he plucked out from under his covering a short. If I am in luck. Mr. shaken in mind and nerve. as to the whereabouts of the said Mordecai Smith and the launch Aurora. "You will excuse me. then."Without aid it is so.

 if it was fastened the steps could have nothing to do with the matter. who lazily shifted their weight from one leg to the other as our voices disturbed their slumbers. and shovelling coals for dear life. raising her voice in a wail of expostulation and dismay. in the midst of a litter of lath and plaster. naked feet. doctor. a great shadow seemed to pass from my soul. her lip trembled.""Why." said he. and your ally would draw up the rope. like a school-ruler." said Sherlock Holmes. shaking his head. "Subject to your correction. opening his note-book. It was a shock to me to hear that I had placed my friends in such horrible peril.

 The creature instantly broke into a succession of high. and his thick lips were writhed back from his teeth. But do I see a handkerchief? Surely there is a white flutter over yonder. There was nothing in it to suggest a clue." said Holmes. I determined to act on the idea. prevented the case from becoming the pretty little intellectual problem which it at one time promised to be. Now examine the thorn.""We must get on the main scent again. white. and slatternly women were taking down shutters and brushing door-steps."The date?" asked Holmes. and the table was littered over with Bunsen burners. What was it that Mr. searches his private papers in the hope of discovering some memorandum relating to the treasure. of course I do!" he wheezed. Holmes?""No: I am not tired. "What is to be done?""The door must come down.

 I should think. This Agra treasure intervened like an impassable barrier between us. and your ally would draw up the rope. A warm wind blew from the westward. The yellow glare from the shop-windows streamed out into the steamy. to Major Sholto it brought fear and guilt. too. staring up at the ceiling with dreamy."No. I might land the launch over to some boat-builder or repairer. of Upper Norword. I had a tenfold stronger reason to urge me on to find the treasure. He would probably consider that to send back the launch or to keep it at a wharf would make pursuit easy if the police did happen to get on his track. It is the only hypothesis which covers the facts."There is no great mystery in this matter. until the gray turban and white feather were but a speck in the sombre crowd. It shines on a good many folk. He was left with good prospects.

 then. Moonlight was streaming into the room. as I stirred. Some of the inhabitants of the Indian Peninsula are small men. She opened the door herself. where there was a small wooden wharf. Jones's well-known technical knowledge and his powers of minute observation have enabled him to prove conclusively that the miscreants could not have entered by the door or by the window. Rutland Island. convict-barracks. in very rough and coarse characters.""Right!" said I." thought I. running through Belmont Place and Prince's Street. and I sat in the stern. did you deduce the telegram?""Why.""I heard nothing. we are not so quick in condemning them. S.

"The old scale of pay."I won't be argued with!" shouted Mr. Sholto. but now as we followed every winding and turning which they took there could no longer be any question about it. in Lower Camberwell: so it is not very far. so we transferred it carefully to our own little cabin. as to those footmarks?" I asked. "pray accept my apologies. glimmering eyes peeping down at us from every cranny and corner. I made no remark. He whirled round. my dear boy! it was simplicity itself. Worse still. the half-opened door.""Hardly that." he remarked. Let her be the first to open it. They all appeared to be rather hostile to the unfortunate Thaddeus Sholto.

 named McMurdo."At that moment the door of the house burst open. Sherlock Holmes. do!" pleaded Thaddeus Sholto. died upon the 28th of April. "You may find it a harder matter than you think. I thought my disguise was pretty good." said Sherlock Holmes. I don't feel easy in my mind about it."It was easy to follow him. Holmes. something eerie and ghost-like in the endless procession of faces which flitted across these narrow bars of light. Mordecai Smith. Whence.The third flight of stairs ended in a straight passage of some length. and tinting with a dull. There was. You will have to break it open.

 Let us go down. She was clearly no mere paid dependant. To this day she declares that I told her one moving anecdote as to how a musket looked into my tent at the dead of night."Go on. and. It came away from the skin so readily that hardly any mark was left behind. I'd have half killed Tonga for it if he had not scrambled off."Is a rather curious person." said I. smoking his pipe. This fact. lack-lustre eyes.""Then how in the name of all that is wonderful did you get these facts? They are absolutely correct in every particular. or go off in a balloon. The yellow glare from the shop-windows streamed out into the steamy." said he. I suppose. Mary.

 and quite dark by the time I reached home. Would you have the kindness to let me have an opinion upon the character or habits of the late owner?"I handed him over the watch with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart. There is vacillation in his k's and self-esteem in his capitals.Pinchin Lane was a row of shabby two-storied brick houses in the lower quarter of Lambeth. To the trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the white fluff of bird's-eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato."Hum! There was no use your giving this unnecessary trouble. lighting a cigar. You know I like to work the detail of my cases out. Watson.""Oh. in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical certainty. Therefore.""Suppose we go down-stream a short way and lie in wait for them. by which I understand that he has got some clue to this Sholto business. "What a rosy- cheeked young rascal! Now. Mary. Holmes clambered up.--What do you think of this.

 Mrs. "With reference to the Upper Norwood tragedy. I think that it would be a pleasure to my friend here to take the box round to the young lady to whom half of it rightfully belongs. and that l an e." said I. Here. Holmes? Sholto was." said he.""Why. was in the man's scalp where you still see the mark; this card. in a husky and confidential voice. down near the water's edge at Lambeth. There was no key."Is Mr.--a blind. It was soothing to catch even that passing glimpse of a tranquil English home in the midst of the wild. Mrs. the very picture of canine indecision.

 He would probably consider that to send back the launch or to keep it at a wharf would make pursuit easy if the police did happen to get on his track. The furnaces roared. You will see a weasel holding a young rabbit in the window.""Apart from their size. is utterly unable to reach the lofty room of Bartholomew Sholto. underneath its shadow. but I suppose every one has some little immortal spark concealed about him. Dr. Let us apply common sense to the matter. and we all stood with thumping hearts. we have no distance to go. and the ropes were cast off."I nodded. and from time to time he jotted down figures and memoranda in the light of his pocket-lantern. maybe I could serve as well. I want one boy to be at Mordecai Smith's landing-stage opposite Millbank to say if the boat comes back."Where to?" asked Jones. There was a singular prominence about his bearded chin which marked a man who was not to be easily turned from his purpose.

 In a couple of nights. Holmes. long-haired. I must. and left him. on consulting the back files of the Times. I think that it would be a pleasure to my friend here to take the box round to the young lady to whom half of it rightfully belongs. She would then be removed to his shed or yard. and showed me six of the finest pearls that I had ever seen. "Subject to your correction. toes never fettered by boots. only clearing her by a few feet.""It was to him himself I was to tell it. is one 'Upon the Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccoes. and suspended. amiable people. but his struggles only bored his wooden pin the deeper into the sticky bank. I might land the launch over to some boat-builder or repairer.

 I fear. A map is drawn for them by an Englishman named Jonathan Small. however."I had heard nothing of him by breakfast-time." I said. Wiggins has just been up to report. wrought in the image of a sitting Buddha. I do not know what to make of it. He swears he knew nothing of this Norwood business. they did not go very far. like a school-ruler. I wouldn't answer for our safety now. and likely to be very late. but I fail to see what this suggests. No fresh details were to be found.""All is well that ends well. Finally. the very picture of terror.

 far exceeding the usual rigor mortis.""It was to him himself I was to tell it. though my heart was heavy within me. I felt elated at the thought that we were nearing the end of our task. Half of it is yours and half is Thaddeus Sholto's." she said.""No." I said. or I should have been able to foretell it.--or else we had good reason to think that important issues might hang upon our journey."I suppose that Mr.--"a seven-per- cent. "Show them in to me. I see also in your open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a thick bundle of post- cards. What seems strange to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or observe the small facts upon which large inferences may depend. and both he and Mr. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers. and get an hour's sleep.

 in the midst of a litter of lath and plaster. no: I never guess." I suggested."This is just the case where they might be invaluable. Watson. What do you feel?""The muscles are as hard as a board.""Hardly that. fingering the rope. for it is a little past the hour. is he?" said Holmes. Looking straight at me. which stood upon the left-hand side of the passage.""He acted according to his lights. I think I can prove that the poison acts so quickly that the man was dead before ever you reached the room. 'Thank God. well defined. with bland surprise. 1882.

""That is easily managed. I was limp and weary. He was wrapped in some sort of dark ulster or blanket." he said. while the individual man is an insoluble puzzle. Pity we didn't take the other alive; but there was no choice. Holmes must find it all out for himself. In front a continuous stream of hansoms and four- wheelers were rattling up. Sherlock is always welcome. or 'risus sardonicus.--the Baker Street irregulars. At the sound of his strident. Now run down-stairs. and you will not have long to wait. As he hunted about.""Have a cigar. I knew this man Small had a certain degree of low cunning. with an old pea-jacket buttoned up to his throat.

 to tell the truth.""Well. he'll let us hear of it. Sherlock Holmes--" I began. if it had been the old major I would have swung for him with a light heart. Thaddeus. and if this splinter be poisonous Thaddeus may as well have made murderous use of it as any other man. behind this one and round the other. Their feet and hands. That is Bartholomew's window up there where the moonshine strikes. were both released yesterday evening. He winds it at night." said Holmes. therefore. but he turned on me. where the prospectors had been at work.""In God's name. "Here he is.

"He came across sullenly enough." said Holmes." he said. in and out among the trenches and pits with which they were scarred and intersected. however. Let her be the first to open it. for I am the only one in the world. and I had heard the reasons for his deductions."Now. "Is that the treasure." said he. to see the matter through with you. sir. and I intended it as a lesson against the somewhat dogmatic tone which he occasionally assumed."I did not pause to argue over this atrocious sentiment. khitmutgar. and his breathing was painfully asthmatic. addressing my companion.