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A STUDY IN SCARLET By Sir A. Conan l>oylo. (Continued from last issue.) "I roaly beg your pardon," said my companion, who had ruffled the littlt man's temper by bursting into an explosion of laughter. "You certainly have the credit of being the first of us to find this out, and, as yon say, it bears every mark of having been written by the other particpant in last night's mystery. 1 have not had time to examine this room yet. hut with your permission 1 shall do sc now As he spoke he wiped a tape-measure and a large, round magnifying glass from his pocket. With these i v? w 1111 pit-iih'iiis iin iroiuui noiseless ly about the room, sometimes stop ping, occasionally kneeling, and once lying flat upon his face. So engrossed "was ho with his occupation that he appeared to have forgotten our presence, for he chatered away to himself, keeping up a running lire of exclamations, groans, whistles, and little cries suggestive of encouragement and of hope. As I watched him 1 was irresistibly reminded of a pureblooded, well-trained foxhound as it dashes backward and forward thru the covert, whining in its eagerness, until it comes across the lost scent. For twenty minutes or more he continued his researches, measuring with the most exact care the distance between marks which were entirely invisible to me, and occasionally applying his tape to the walls in an equally incomprehensible manner. In one place he gathered very carefully a little pile of gray dust from tho floor, and packed it away in an envelope. Finally he examined with his glass the wood upon the wall, going over every letter of it with the most minute exactness. This done, he appeared to he satisfied, for he replaced his tape and his glass in his pocket. "They say that genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains," he remarked, with a smile. "It's a very bad definition, hut It does annlv to detective work." Gregson and Lestrade had watched the maneuvers of their amateur companion with considerable curiosity and some contempt. They evidently failed to appreciate the fact, which I had begun to realize, that Sherlock Holmes' smallest actions were all directed toward some definite and practical end. "What do you think of it, sir?" they both asked. "It would be robbing you of tht credit of the case if 1 were to presume to help you," remarked my friend. "You are doing so well now that it would be a pity for any one to interfere." There was a world of sarcasm in his voice as lie spoke. "If you will let me know how your investigations go," ho continued, "I shall he happy to give you any help T can. In the meantime I should like to speak to the constable who found the body. Can you give mo his name and address?" -Tiestrade glanced at his note book. "John Ranee," he said. "He's off duty now. You will find him at 4f? Audley Court, Kennington Park Gate." Holmes took a note of the address. "Come along, doctor," he said, "we shall go and look him up. I'll tell you one thing which may help you in the case," he continued, turning to the two detectives. "There has been murder done, and the murderer was a man. He was more than six feet high, was in the prime of life, had small feet for his height, wore coarse, square-toed boots, and smoked a Tricliinopoly cigar. He came here with liis victim in a four-wheeled cab, which was drawn by a horse with three old shoes, and one new one on his off fore-leg. In all probability the murderer bad a florid faco, and tho finger nails of tho hight hand were remarkably long. These are only a few indications, but they may assist you." Eestrade and Clregson glanced at each other with an incredulous smile. "Poison," said Sherlock Holmes, curtly, and strode off. "One other thing, Lestrade," ho aded, turning round at the door: " 'Rache' is the German for 'revenge'; so don't lose your time looking for Miss Rachel." With which Parthian shot he walked away, leaving the two rivals openmouthed behind him. CHAPTER IV. What John Ilancc Mad to Tell. It was one o'clock when we left No. 3 Lauriston Gardens. Sherlock Holmes led me to the nearest telegraph oflice, whence he dispatched a long telegram. He then hailed a cab, and ordered the driver to take us to the address given us by I^estrade. "There is nothing like first-hand ? * N/ * VIIIUI IV V-V4 , (ID l\ IIKll" ter of fact, my mind is entirely made up upon the case, but still we may as well learn all that is to be learned." "You amaze me, Holmes," said I. "Surely you are not as sure as you pretend to be of all those particulars which you gave." "There's no room for a mistake," he answered. "The very first thing which I observed on arriving there was that a cab had made two ruts with its wheels close to the curb. I Now, up to lust night, wo hu\ h J no rain for a week, so that iltoa wheels, which left such a d?* . i n , prossion, must have boon th< ? ? during the night. There were the mark:of a horse's hoofs, tot), the outline of one of which was far more clearly cut than that of the other throe, showing that that was a now shoo. Since the cab was there after rain , began, ami was not there at any time ' , during the morning I have (Iieg son's word for it?it follows that it i brought those two individuals to the ' house." "That seems simple enough," said i I; "but how about the other man's ; height?" "Why, the height of a man, in nine I cases out of ten, can be told from the length of his stride. It is a simple ? calculation enough, though there is no use my boring you with figures. I had this fellow's stride, both on the clay outside and on the dust within. Then 1 had a way of checking my calculation. When a man writes on a wall, his instict leads him to write about tho level of his own eyes. I Now. that writing was just over six feet from the ground. It was child's play." "And his age?" I asked. "Well, if a man can stride four and a half feet without tho small est effort, he can't bo quite in the sere and yellow. That was the breadth of a puddle on the garden walk which he had evidently walked across. Patent-leather hoots had hopped over. There is no mystery about it at all. I am simply applying to ordinary life a few of those precepts of observation and deduction which I advocated in that article. Is there anything else that puzzles you ? " "The finger nails and the Trichinopoly," I suggested. "The writing on the wall was done with a man's forefinger dipped i 11 blood. My glass allowed me to observe that the plaster was slightly scratched in doing it. which would not have been the case if the man's nail had been trimmed. 1 gathered up some scattered ashes from the floor. It was dark in color and flaky -such an ash as is only made by a Trlchinopoly. 1 have made a special study of cigar ashes?in fact, 1 have written a monograjrti upon the subject. I flatter myself that T can distinguish at a glance the ash of any known brand either of cigar or tobacco. It is in just such details that the skilled detective differs from the (Jregson and Pestrade type." "And the florid face?" I asked. "Ah, that was a more daring shot, though 1 have no doubt that T was right. You must not ask me that at the present state of the affair." I passed my hand over my brow. "My head is in a whirl," I remark ed; "the more one thinks of it, th<> more mysterious it grows. How came these two men?if there wore two men?into an empty heuM? What has become of the cabman who drove them? How could one uai compel another to take poison? Where did the blood come from? What was the object of the murderer, since robbery had no part in it? How came the woman's ring there? Above all why should the second man write the German word, 'Rache' before decamping? I confess that I can not see any possible way of reconciling these facts," My companion smiled approvingly. "You sum up the dilliculties of the situation succinctly and well," ho said. "There is much that is still obscure, though I have quite made *p my mind ou the main facts. As to poor Lestrade's discovery, it was simply a blind intended to put the police upon a wrong track, by suggesting socialism and secret societies. It was not done by a German. The A, if you noticed, was printed somewhat after the German fashion. Now, a real German invariably prints in the Latin character, so that we may safely say that this was not written by one, hut by a clumsy imitator, who overdid his part. Tt. was simply a ruse, to divert inquiry into a wrong channel. I'm not going to tell you much more of the case, doctor. You know a conjuror get no credit when if 1 show you too much of my method once he has explained his trick, and of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all." "I shall never do that," I answered; "you have brought detection as near an exact science as it ever will be brought in this world." My companion flushed up with pleasure at my words and the earnest way in which I uttered them. I had already observed that he was as sensitive to flattery on the score of his art as any girl could ,be of her beauty. "I'll toll you one other thing," he said. "Patent-leathers and Squaretoes came in the same cab, and they walked down the pathway together as friendly as possible?arm in arm, in all probability. When they got inside they walked up and down the room?or, rather, patent-leathers stood still, while Suuare-toos wnlknU up and down. I could read all that In the dust; and I could read that, as he walked, he grew more and more excited. That Is shown hy the increased length of his strides. lie was talking all the while, and working himself up, no doubt, into a fury. Then the tragedy occurred. I've told you all I know myself, for the rest is mere surmise and conjecture. We have a good working basis, however, on which to start. We must hurry up, for I want to go to Halle's concert, to hear Norman Neruda, this aft e moon." Thin conversation had occurred while our cab had been threading it? way through a long succession ol {dingy streets and dreary by-ways. It the dingiest and dreariest of then our driver suddenly raine to a stand "That's Audley Court in there,' he said, pointing to a narrow slit ii the line of a dead-colored brick "You'll find me here when you conn back." Audley Court was not an attractive i locality. The narrow passage led vn into a quadrangle paved with (lag: and lined by sordid dwellings. \Y< picked out way among groups of dirty children and through lines of dis colored linen until we camo to No 4 0. the door of which was decornt.ee with a small slip of brass, on whirl the name Uanco was engraved. ()i inquiry we found that the constabl< was in bed, and we were shown int< a little front parlor to await his com ing. "1 made my report at the ofllce,' he said. Holmes took a half-sovereign fron his pocket and played with it pen sively. "We thought that we should like to hear it all from your own lips," lie said. "I shall he most happy to tell you anvthing I can." the constable answered, with his eyes upon the little golden disk. ".lust let mo hear It all in your own way, as it occurred." Kanco sat down on the horsehair sofa and knitted his brows, as though (letermlneel not to omit anything in his narrative. "I" tell it ye from the beginning," he said. "My time is from ten at night to six in the morning. At eleven there was a tight at the White Hart; but, bar that, all was quiet enough on the beat. At one o'clock it began to rain, and I met Harry Murcher?him who has the Holland (irove beat?and we stood together at the corner of Henrietta Street a-talkiif. Presently?maybe about two, or a little after?I thought I would take a look round, and see that all right right down the Brixton Road. It was precious dirty and lonely. Not a soul did I meet all the way down, though a cab or two went past me. 1 was a-strollin' down, thinkin', between ourselves, how uncommon handy a four of gin hot would be, when suddenly a glint of light caught my eye in the window of that same house. Now, I knew that them two houses in Lauriston Gardens was empty on account of him that owns them, who won't have the drains seed to, though the very last tenant what lived in one of them died o' typhoid fever. I was knocked all in a heap, therefore, at seeing a light In the window, and I suspected as something was wrong. When I got to the door " "You stopped, and then walked hack to the garden gate," my companion interrupted. "What did you do that for?" "Why, that's true, sir," he said; "though how you come to know it, Heaven only knows! Ye see, when I got up to the door, it was so still and so lonesome that I thought I'd ,be none the worse for some one "with me. 1 ain't afeard of anything on this side o' the grave; but 1 thought that maybe it was him that died o' the typhoid, inspecting the drains what killed him. The thought gave me a kind o' turn, and I walked hack to the gate to see if I could see Marcher's lantern, but there wasn't no sign of him nor of any one else." "There was no one in the street?" "Not a livin' soul, sir, nor as much as a dog. Then I pulled myself together and went back and pushed the door open. All was quiet inside, so I went into the room where the light was a-burnin'. There was a candle flickerin' on the mantelpiece?a red wax one?and by its light. I saw " "Yes, I know all that you saw. You walked round the room several times, and you knelt down by the body, then you walked through and tried the kitchen door, and then? " John Ranee sprang to his feet, with a frightened face and suspicion in his eyes. "Whore was you hid to see all that?" he cried. "It seems to me that you knows a deal more than you should." Holmes laughed, and threw his card across the table to the constable. "Don't get arresting nie for the murder," he said. "I am one of the hounds, and not the wolf; Mr. Gregson or Mr. Lestrade will answer for tha,t. Go on, though. What did you do next?" Ranee resumed his seat, without, however, losing his mystified expression. "I went hack to the gate and sounded my whistle. That brought Marcher and two more to the spot." "Was the street empty then?" "Well, it was, as far as anybody that could he of any good goes." "What do you mean?" The constable's features broadened into a grin. "I've seen many a drunk chap in my time," he said, "but never any one so crying' drunk as that cove. Mo was at tho gate when I came out, a-leanin' up agin the ratlin's and a-singin' at the pitch of his lungs about Columbine's new-fangled banner, or some such stuff. He couldn't stand, far less help." "What sort of a man was he?" asked Sherlock Holmes. John Ranee appeared to be somewhat irritated at this digression. "Ho was an uncommon drunk sort , I FAVORS GOOD ROADS < KdMor The Horry Herald ? f There is no <1 west ion that is more i vital importance to the farmer than i the good roads question, (iood roads . would put more money in the farmer's pocket, in an indirect way, than 1 any other one thing. It would save * in the way of doctor bills, hauling 2 crops to market, hauling fertilizer, | and ti good many other ways. In the , 2 first place, if we had good roads, the s doctor could come to see our sick a * great deal cheaper than he can as it 1 is. It wouldn't take as much oil to run his car nor would he have his buggy torn to pieces by shaking over |the holes and old bridges. And in 1 I hauling to and from market we could 1 haul more than twice as much at a 1 [ load, saving in time of man, wagon and team, which is by no means a * small item. Suppose a man lixed six " miles from town and counts a man | and team of mules worth per day, and that team would pull fifteen hundred pounds (which is a big load on 1 most of our roads). Two loads a day woudl he three thousand pounds hauled at the cost of $:?. And suppose a man had seventy-live tons of fertilizer to haul. It would take fifty days to get it hauled. Fifty times ' would be $150 it would cost him to get his fertilizer hauled. Now, on the other hand, suppose we had good roads; he could cut that in halw, which would give him at least twenty-five days to work on his farm, or a saving of $7.">, not counting anything ( for the saving in hauling crops to , market and the wear and tear of his wagon, etc., when he wants to go to town, or anywhere he might want to < go. This eadculation is only made ( for one year (and a road made right j ; would last ten years with very little, i work), ami lie would save in ten t years $750. This calculation will < seem to some just merely guess work j < and not practicable, and to disabuse t any one's mind of such an idea I will t give an illustration along that line. 1 There litis been a road built recently i from the Nichols bridge' on Lumber t river, leading through Nichols and on t to Mullins, which is built of sand and 1 clay, and 1 think it is one of the best j joints of road in the State. Some time ago, since the road was j built, a contractor in Mullins con- i traeted to furnish the material and < build a house in Nichols, and some of l this material was hauled from Mul- t lins, a distance of about seven miles, t So he put five sills 7x8x20 feet long and four sills 7x8x16 feet long on a r one horse wagon, hooked one horse i to it and brought it tp Nichols. This t was green . pine heart, and lumber i ? t o* man," ho said. -"He'd ha' found c hisself in the station if we hadn't s been so took up." i "His face?his dress?didn't you < nntinp tluim i" iinin./M. , . iiuiiiicd uiuku iii, 1111- r patiently. "I should think I did notice them, t seeing that I had to prop him vip? t me and Marcher between us. He was \ a long chap, with a red face, the t lower part muffled round " < "That will do," cried Holmes, j "What became of him?" 3 "We'd enough to do without look- i in' after him," the policeman said, in 1 an aggrieved voice. "I'll wager he t found his way home all right." 3 "How was he dressed?" c "A brown overcoat." I "Had he a whip in his hand?" $ "A whip? No." i "He must have left it behind," t muttered my companion. "You didn't 1 happen to see or hear a cab after 1 that?" "No." \ "There's a half-sovereign for you," 1 my companion said, standing up and r taking his hat. "I am afraid, Ranee, c that you will never rise in the force. That head of yours should be for us# r as well as ornament. You might have gained your sergeant's stripes ( last night. The man whom you held ^ in your hands is the man who holds ( the clew of this mystery, and whom ( we are seeking. There is 110 use of arguing about it now; 1 tell you that j it is so. Come along, doctor." j We started off for the cab together, ^ leaving our informant incredulous, ^ but obviously uncomfortable. "The blundering fool!" Holmes ^ said, bitterly, as we drove back to our a lodgings. "Just to think of his hav- ^ ing such an incomparable bit of good ( luck, and not taking advantage of it." . "I am rather in the dark still. It is true that the description of this ^ man tallies with your idea of the second party in this mystery. Hut why should he come back to the house , artor leaving It? This Is not the way 1 of criminals." . s "The ring, man, the ring; that was what lie came back for. Tf we have no other way of catching him, we can always bait our line with the ring. I shall have him, doctor?I'll lay you two to one that I have him. T must thank you for it all; I might not. have gone hut for you, and have missed the finest study I ever came across?a study in scarlet, eh? Why snouuint we use a little art jargon? There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colorless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it. And now for lunch, and then for Norman Neruda. Tier attack and her bowing are splendid. What's the little thing of Chopin's she plays so 1 magnificently: "Tra-la-la-lira-lira- * lay." Leaning hack in the cab, this ama- < teur bloodhound caroled away like a lark, while I meditated upon the 1 many-sidedness of the human mind. men say it would weigh four pounds to the foot, or more, which would be 3,0(10 poudns; and when he got to Nichols his horse was hardly sweating under the callor, and it was a warm day, too. So you can see my calculation on the fertilizer was very low. So much for the advantages to be derived from good roads. Now the next question is, how are we to get these roads? A question that is puzzling the best thinkers, and I don't know that I have arrived at the best solution of the problem, but I will give what I believe to be the best. In the first place there is not even a majority of the people as much interested in good roads as we ought to be. We will sit around and "cuss" the supervisor if there is not an overseer on our joint of road, and 1? /? ? tri\4 lw? /wriit'Ottiie i It ! <r, ^ It I ? in;11 n u uiv; v/i\>iovvi m ** '? many cases lie just simply lets'the time slip and has no work done. And if the law was enforced one-half or more of us would have to serve a term on the gang with some of the overseers for default of road duty. If we were as anxious about roads as we should la4 there are a good many places where we would have good roads, where now it is only hills, holes and gullies. There are joints of road where the number of hands are not sufficient to make the road or keep it up after it is made, on account of so much travel. Hut I know of other joints that could be made up to date with the hands that are on them, and that in one year; and some of these are as bad as most any you ran find. Well, the law is a little unfair as it is, 1 will agree. Under the present situation, if the law were enforced, the poor white man and the negro in \ good many instances would have to keep the road up. There are men that own a great deal of property who are too old to work the road. onsequently they don't have to pay their commutation road tax, and he other fellows have to keep the road up for them to ride over. And t would not do to put the road tax on hese without putting it on all, and o do that would be nn imposition on ots of poor old fellows who have no property at all. It would .be till right to have a >roperty tax to a limited extent. For nstance, put a road tax of $1 say on ivery mule or horse, and let that tax je used on the joints of road where here are not sufficient hands to keep he road up. i ihmi i wouki suggest tne doing iway with the County hoard as it iow is, and have one man in each ownship who would work in harliony with the supervisor. And let hat man be empowered to look after ivery joint of road in his township, me that that road had an overseer on t and that overseer had every hand in his joint road to do the work as equircd by law. Some one will say, it would cost oo much to pay one man from each ownship. Well, let's see. Suppose ve had that man in Floyds township, md suppose he was paid $2.50 per lay not exceeding thirty days in the 'ear. Thirty time $2.50 would he >7 5. And suppose he only succeeded n getting tho work or the $.1 comnutation road tax of fifty hands: here would ho the $75 back with 575 additional or three hundred lays' work on the road, which would >e one hundred cents on the dollar my way you count it. And the way t has been going, he would not have 0 go five miles away from his own lome to find that nuhmber who did lot work last year or pay the $?? lither. Now, I don't think any one vould object to such a plan as is outined here, for every one wants good oads. Also the automobiles would ome in for their share of the tax, md I would say not less than $5, oad tax on a car. So much for the local side of the luestion. Now let's look at it in a general way. I have been studying ho question of a .bond issue some ime, and 1 did think one time that 1 township bond would be the best, >ut I have decided differently now. n the first place, township bonds vould he just as expensive as county >onds, and the road machinery would oht. so much that it would cut too dg a hole in the funds. And beides, it would bo difficult to pet n row of hands for ovory township in ho county. I don't know whether a >ond issue could he gotten up to suit von a majority of the people or not. voted for Mr. Spivey's bond, hut till I had some objection to it. 1 vanted good roads and I would not et my objection causo me to vote BANK OJE Conwa HAS LARGEST CAPITAL AND SlIR COUNTY. MORE THAN THE COME ALL OTHER RANKS IN THE COU CAPITAL STOCK.. .. SURPLUS LIABILITIES OF STOC yii'i tui'i'v />n ivimAv.il ut^vv iil I \J V JFrji'l/9l DIRE( ROBERT B. SCARBOROUGH. VL L. ZUCK, 3EORGE J. HOLIDAY. WE OFFER OUR CUSTOMERS AOC COUNTS WILL JUSTIFY, AND WE Robert D. Scarborough, D. President. against it. However, it would not be fair for one township to be held down by another, and in case we could not get the county bonds, 1 would favor township bonds. Everybody is aware of the fact that it takes money to do anything in the way of improvement. When money is put in a building it is just as good as buried. Wo have a court house and jail of which we are all proud. Still as an investment the money had just as well been buried. Not so wehn it comes to building roads. The merchant buys his goods, puts them in his store, and when ho sells them ho generally tries to get IB to 25 per cent, or more. And that looks like a big per cent., but when his running expenses are taken out his per cent, is cut one third or more. The banker gets probably 10 or 12 per cent., and the farmer can never accurately calculate his per cent. Not so with the money used in building roads. You can easily figure out one hundred per cent, on every dollar properly invested, and while it is a good investment no one man nor set nf mon n UrUU ? v ?aw*v* V/ 1 I I (If) cl 11 111vostment. It takes all the people pulling together to get the benefit or profit derived therefrom. It takes too much money, and it is impossible to get. all the people together in a partnership business. And a direct tax would bo too expensive, and not only too expensive but would not be fair. A direct tax would be too hard on a lot of old men that can't he here long to enjoy the road after it is built, and a lot of young ones too as for that, .because the young die as well as the old. So the only solution is a bond issue, and a county bond at that. So let's quit fussing and cussing about it and decide on some plan, so that when our representatives go back to Columbia next winter they can feel free to give us the relief needed. And my plan is as follows: Give us a bond issue of one hundred thousand dollars, say, for the whole county. Divide that into four parts at least, and sell $25,000 worth of those bonds in 1914, $25,000 in 1915, $25,000 in 1916, and $25,000 in 1917. That would give us four years to sell the bonds, and in my mind would save considerably. Then divide that amount by the number of townships in the county along with the regular county fund as we have it. Get the supervisor, with the chain gang and as many hired hands as he would need to do the work, expend that money, letting each town miip nave us pro rata. Now, if the plan outlined above is not the beat let's bear from some one else, and if it is the best, say so. A. D. Jackson. Pour deaths and several prostrations resulted from the heat at Louisville, Ky. The maximum temperature was 10 1.3 registered at two o'clock at the weather bureau. In the street below the temperature was several degrees higher. THE HORRY HERALD CONWAY, S. C. TlilRSDAV, Ai d ST 7, 1018. PROFESSIONAL CAUDA. H. H. WOODWARD Attornmj and Councilor At Law. CONWAY, 8. C. i ?. B. 8C A JLOiltOlJ Oil CONWAY, 8. C. Attorney mt Lew H. H. UUIUtOCOHA fttkjBioljui and Surgeon. CONWAY, 8. O. W. E. McCORD, Dental Surreon CONWAY, S. C. RENE RAVEN EL f>anri Hiirvfying and Drainage Spirey Building Conway, S. 0. * HORRY, y. S, C. .PLCS OF ANY BANK IN HORRY tINED CAPITAL AND SURPLUS OF NTY. $50,000 12,500 J 7KHOLDERS. . .. 50,000 (TORS 112,500 :tors W. A. JOHNSON, WILL A. FREEMAN, D. V. RICHARDSON. OM MOD ATI ON WHICH THEIR ACSOLICIT YOUR BUSINESS. T. Richardson, - Will A. Freeman, Vice-President Cashier.