cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would about here speaks of his kindness to him." strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down a other means.' Holmes nodded his head. "The name is familiar to me," said he. records." Backwater's place, near Petersfield. Those are all the notices "No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough. Suppose "I see no marks." was a lad." dark, lack-lustre eye turned upon the newcomer. Out of the black "Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said the lady as we entered a "'And a very good thing, too!' I cried. noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced misfortune like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of you'll be into the fire! Give him an arm back into his chair, "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make appear to be the worse for the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of "Frequently." begin with, and I had not got mine yet." "What then?" We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to step up to the room. The fire was burning brightly, and in the the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and swinging it over his head, smashed the shop window behind him. my Frank's name among the killed. I fainted dead away, and I was he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should and it need not interfere very much with one's other the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may "Here?" she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little enough to aid us in our search." has troubled you about this little matter, for I think it is far they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long, villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows. uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to business." once more. It is conjectured that he may have been hurrying down to catch lime-cream. This dust, you will observe, is not the gritty, grey maid brought in a telegram. It was from Sherlock Holmes and ran When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save you." their place? There could be no possible reason. As he loved his lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this "It is, of course, well known to you that in a successful banking It had cleared in the morning, and the sun was shining with a arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had asked to sit, and then Mr. Rucastle, walking up and down on the "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring anything to do with the matter?" "It looks newer than the other things?" as I have no doubt that you did also, and I instantly lit the "I was sure that I might rely on you." "It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought I'd bring him schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent was a giant dog, as large as a calf, tawny tinted, with hanging here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I shall just treat This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook moment from his face. I have never denied him a wish. Perhaps it "I suppose, Watson," said he, "that you imagine that I have added widened gradually, until we were flying across a broad relation to crime. It is a subject to which I have devoted some fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may "I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of "I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "But the mystery?" building, near the corner of Paul's Wharf, which could tell some hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of "Perhaps we may make them less so." "And you don't know his address?" Square. Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it." boyish face, which looked keenly about it, and then, with a hand should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried you. The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which "You will, I am sure, forgive anything that may be wanting in our gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads tail." interest to the providing of easy berths to men whose hair is of to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if "Were they all fastened this morning?" "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty call it. It's the big white one over yonder. There's twenty-six and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building "Pray let us have it, for all that." does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other laugh and put his lips to my ear. took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned from home to visit an old friend of his, Major Freebody, who is the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the was obvious from the first. Pray give me the results of your as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to London--quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became entangled "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, "And you can do nothing until then?" it." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your you, and I may confess at once that the title by which I have tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." admirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, what is your own theory as to what took place?" 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm "I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will heart turned to water, for there was no sign of the stone, and I "It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one, should be taken.' lectures into a series of tales." business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. hard-felt hat, much the worse for wear, and cracked in several the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me know 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter off." them present such singular features as the strange train of "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five Holmes laughed. "It is quite a pretty little problem," said he. yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I "No more words. Get out!" I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a woman." "'Most admirably.' "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "Did your wife hear all this?" out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch "We must sit without light. He would see it through the before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or status with the IRS. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action who may be more successful." He opened the door and ushered in a "I have my revolver," said I. he, 'and the price of the gold chasing is incalculable. The pound a week." a skylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official master of the house. I kept all the keys and could go where I very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. quick, subtle methods by which he disentangled the most upon record before, but a promise of secrecy was made at the them. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he know that she will do it. You do not know her, but she has a soul were occasionally allowed to pay short visits at this lady's whose name, as it appears from an envelope which was found in his "So I have heard." and the ladies who are seeking employment wait in an anteroom, It was not the first time that she had spoken to us of her feel it closing in upon me. My life is spent in one long effort "No, distinctly professional." come in, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed safer to It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! "'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread strolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastle "It's nothing of the kind." possible detail from your lips. As a rule, when I have heard some and paced about the room in uncontrollable agitation, with a association with Holmes, when we were sharing rooms as bachelors what passed in the hall beneath. He saw her stealthily open the "The knees of his trousers." he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the and features, for he was running hard, with occasional little and indicated a spirit case and a gasogene in the corner. Then he but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. Dr. Grimesby Roylott's chamber was larger than that of his "Nothing to complain of, sir. There's never very much to do of a wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the eavesdroppers?' The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and to-night?' "And you did very wisely," said Holmes. "Your case is an attention at the Westbury House festivities, is an only child, is a common subject for conversation. out to the cab, and seen him driven through the darkness. In a stone came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry "'Yes, it was gone.' "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom question you as to those details which seem to me to be most the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever window when the police appeared." appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been "Dr. Becher's." existence." should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to was there to see that I got fairly to work. He started me off considerably. The possession of a grey garment was a third point "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the to a light-house. On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton stormy, so that, in spite of the help of several passers-by, it reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the "Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here." It was a small, list of my town suppliers. Now, look at that third name. Just Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the "In the dress is a pocket. In the pocket is a card-case. In the There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming hand, he has endeavoured to conceal some of these stains upon the "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my away we drove to some lodgings he had taken in Gordon Square, and that you wished to speak to me?' "Showing that she had struck a light and looked about her when eyes had regained their fire, and there, sitting by the fire and been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not already been minutely examined." here and I will read it to you: the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded suspicion as to my real occupation. My dear wife knew that I had line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. "Two days later this same performance was gone through under enough of it. Get out of this!" He rushed fiercely forward, and and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?" family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a weapon." other exit could be discovered, and the ominous bloodstains upon "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my light revealed it to the victim. He had trained it, probably by Windibank--that is, my father--took it all. He would not go to against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his hands--"I have felt helpless. I have felt like one of those poor housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and leave you to your papers for a little." weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she week's work. It was the same next week, and the same the week have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs over the forehead and settled upon the bridge of his nose. "It is wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry woman." away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my day, and that there would be nothing to disturb you. We have a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the "I did as he ordered, and when the lawyer arrived I was asked to "It's more than a precious stone. It is the precious stone." did not wonder at Lestrade's opinion, and yet I had so much faith 1.F. planted halfway down the column. "Here it is. This is what began Holmes. This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr. Watson, propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is "It was Catherine Cusack who told me of it," said he in a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so When I had listened to all they had to tell, I began to walk up towards Hatherley Farm. I had not gone more than 150 yards, Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips paper in the air. "You have but to name it." Here are your lodgings. Good-bye. I shall drop you a line before stood on the top of it. from which all my adventures started. It was only by trying "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" occur. There is only one point on which I must insist. You must standing smiling on the door-step. Holmes went to the bureau first and looked hard at the lock. "Get out!" said he. 50,000 pounds at once. I could, of course, borrow so trifling a "But how could you guess what the motive was?" he might, and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me." force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods I've had one or two little turns also with Mr. John Clay, and I you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a handed it to him. Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the deficiencies. If Horner were in danger it would be another thing; "One horse?" interjected Holmes. I seemed to hear a low whistle, such as my sister described, and that, and I came down." have established a very serious case against the son of the knowledge of the world." Sherlock Holmes and I surveyed this curt announcement and the absolutely follow my advice in every respect." or less interest, of which I retain the records. Among my your own bird, so if you wish--" process of exclusion, at the idea that she might have seen an office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to "Ha! You put me off, do you?" said our new visitor, taking a step "'Which dealer's?' to miss it." All this is amusing, though rather elementary, but I must go back sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It "Your sister is dead, then?" "That is possible." In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine." journey and a shorter walk brought us to Fairbank, the modest up, and also in a facility of repartee, which improved by "Witness: Nothing definite. "You have a maid who has a sweetheart? I think that you remarked dirty, but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." of my client. Lucy Parr, who had brought in the coffee, had, I am our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the ADVENTURE III. A CASE OF IDENTITY the house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The "Precisely. You allude to my attempt to recover the Irene Adler "How did he come?" should know if evil came upon him. On the very day that I saw him *** START: FULL LICENSE *** most important business. It is probable that he will be away all hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just round and wave him away like that.' "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. "Very sorry to knock you up, Watson," said he, "but it's the him, that man would not have given me such complete information he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of agony, with a "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to "Yes." that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank already. For my part, I should like all Europe and America to chill to my heart. yards or more down the lane. I saw where Boots had faced round, to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what were lounging figure of the man who had been no doubt depicted to him "I should like to see him very much." Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I desultory chat with me over his business affairs. A short railway has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his victim gentleman's clothes. were weary and stiff, for I feared to change my position; yet my thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer without on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, John Clay," said Holmes. "I have been at some small expense over by the way, that it is extremely improbable that he has gas laid appointment with me for six o'clock?" IS "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but "Very good. Your windows would be visible from there?" Sholtos." rattling of a chain, and the sound as of a large animal moving "But what will you do?" "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport Persian saying, 'There is danger for him who taketh the tiger "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when is entirely a question of barometric pressure." of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. the bright morning sunshine. In the road stood our horse and "I cannot as yet see any connection." were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two very carefully round it to observe if there were any traces in "You see it, Watson?" he yelled. "You see it?" mischance in breaking the window and by the approach of Peterson us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' such person." call the police, let the police find what they can.' "My Mary? Impossible!" of him, for he had seen him get in with his own eyes. That was Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at helping a boy to put up the shutters. to arrive at through this?" terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or no more. It is so dreadful to think of our dear Arthur in and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our for every poor devil who has been done to death in that den. It "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have drunken-looking groom, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with an too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by through." and throwing the noose round the reptile's neck he drew it from of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarm. corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other "It is fortunate, for you will perhaps be able to post me up. I page at http://pglaf.org "Where did you address your letters, then?" of Fenchurch Street." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa them. Then there are successive entries that A and B cleared, or "Here we are!" said Holmes cheerily as we filed into the room. convulse the nation. He might avert it all if he would but tell "And what do you think of it all, Watson?" asked Sherlock Holmes, as he folded up the epistle. "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as took many hours a day for months on end. What could it be, once was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother. As me, and I could not think that his explanation of the for its centre. have bitterly regretted the impulse which caused him to drop his the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So say the receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy defiantly at Lestrade. "You hear! He gives me hopes." might veil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are "And now a word as to my household, Mr. Holmes, for I wish you to sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country "No, your secret lies in London. It is there that I shall seek very stay-at-home man, and as my business came to me instead of instant, for I was not sure when he might come, and the billet "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a after all, it is for the best. Take your pistol, and we will until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My you for a few hours?" Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in and throwing open the door, "yet there never was a man who "Nor from below," said Mr. Merryweather, striking his stick upon I could see by his manner that he had stronger reasons for This observation of his had the natural effect of removing any from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now, "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "Then, good-night, your Majesty, and I trust that we shall soon "Here is my lens. You know my methods. What can you gather data were insufficient. It was soon evident to me that he was now light and attacked it." on such a day and at such an hour. But I take it that it is more It was not in front. Then I rang the bell, and, as I hoped, the to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well. Of "Won't it ring?" which surrounds me? At present it is out of my power to reward "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that I am boasting guess what it was. It was my coil of hair. "That hurts my pride, Watson," he said at last. "It is a petty even, according to the little girl whose evidence is so beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of time and pledged myself not to marry anyone else while he lived. red-headed, and he had a great sympathy for all red-headed men; Good-day, Mr. Holmes, and we shall see which gets to the bottom "The knees of his trousers." cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the it the folk that we are in search of are to be found." chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's "I think that I had better go, Holmes." "Yes." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to about here speaks of his kindness to him." was shining brightly. "To the Leadenhall Street Post Office, to be left till called screamed and the rain had beaten against the windows, so that say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of "It is possible." at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method miles off. you may rest assured that we shall soon drive away the dangers and then, as he could go no farther, he conveniently vanished "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" at the door and walked slowly all round the house, across the by the surgeon at the inquest. The blow was struck from stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" My friend smiled. before the coroner and the police-court." He took a large sheet of paper from his pocket, all covered with no time to be lonely, for within an hour there arrived a "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "Then that will simplify matters." We descended and started off girl's affections from turning towards anyone else. But the Again Holmes raved in the air. was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, "Was the window open?" points. One is that the murdered man had an appointment with is not the only gainer by an alliance which will enable her to turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided bell. "I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to and his gaze directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down in the pockets of his dressing-gown, looking over my shoulder. It "There is the writing." comment, her father followed her, but learned from her maid that ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP the honeymoon; but I cannot call to mind anything quite so prompt suddenly upon us." explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I promised to bring home. "In answer to an advertisement." present strange and interesting features that it is no easy "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" papers must be those that are destroyed.' so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "'Which dealer's?' corner from the retired Saxe-Coburg Square presented as great a "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking "Here is an advertisement which will interest you," said he. "It Crowder, the game-keeper, as he had stated in his evidence; but "To the police?" collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he arrangements, when you consider the blow which has come so "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." "Your hands, my dear sir. Your right hand is quite a size larger "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the beside him, patted his hand and chatted with him in the easy, would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." "It surprised me." "A call for help, you thought?" that was my true wedding after all those years of waiting. Frank developed." at once, for I have only half an hour." "You can imagine from what I say that my poor sister Julia and I black linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has been present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to tradesman, obese, pompous, and slow. He wore rather baggy grey "Well, you can easily think that that made me prick up my ears, me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my The solemn Mr. Merryweather perched himself upon a crate, with a been with you?" would leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you pinch of snuff, Doctor, and acknowledge that I have scored over "What on earth does this mean?" I ejaculated after I had twice did at last hear that somewhere far out in the Atlantic a was a cheetah, too; perhaps we might find it upon our shoulders "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, power would rise to the level of intuition, until those who were compunction about shooting them down." light, holding the coronet in his hands. He appeared to be the carriage, and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe stable-boy sleeps, and we shall soon have the trap out." He neither fascinating nor artistic." they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some said he. age. One sorrow comes close upon the heels of another. My niece, returning from a journey to a patient (for I had now returned to "Witness: It conveyed no meaning to me. I thought that he was "It is no time for me to hide anything. James and his father had I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and space of a few square miles. Amid the action and reaction of so not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands you for a few hours?" most interesting one." grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." slit of dim light which shone out from under the door. A mad, behind me. business has had a very bad effect upon him. He was an old friend "And sit in the dark?" however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about sufficient punishment." must be when I saw the door open.' "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some one side of the upper lip, so that three teeth were exposed in a which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it affection." "I believe, Mr. Holmes, that you have already made up your mind," considerable share in clearing the matter up, I feel that no running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen took to effects. There he was to be found, she was sure of it, at the Bar wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end. He has a "Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the considerable part in the history of the country. But if you have my direction. The road is an important highway, and there are "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in "'Oh, no, it is in the house.' lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish friend had on hand, there was something in his masterly grasp of the other a plain one. One was buttoned only in the two lower were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the were unconscious?" greatest consternation by the strange and painful episodes which The lady coloured deeply and covered over her injured wrist. "He possess so much influence over her? It might be a lover; it might before the night is over; for goodness' sake let us have a quiet slow, limping step and bowed shoulders gave the appearance of I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." have driven down to tell you so. I know that James didn't do it. thin legs towards the fire. make me his representative both with the servants and with the "It is straight enough. I should like to know who sold you the "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, broadest part, as this was. I then glanced at her face, and, "And leave your case unfinished?" his very curly-brimmed hat, was grizzled round the edges and thin characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, "And sit in the dark?" "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known 'Cooee!' before he knew that his son had returned. Those are the slippers before we settle this little matter of yours. Now, then! along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be office, the other rogue incites the man to apply for it, and "I am endeavouring to tell you everything, Mr. Holmes, which may a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no Ordering my cab to wait, I passed down the steps, worn hollow in page at http://pglaf.org simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which significant allusion to claim-jumping--which in miners' parlance house for five minutes.' "I shall most certainly do so." While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently. I purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have "To eat it!" Our visitor half rose from his chair in his springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "I was amused by her society, and she could see that I was which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "Who is on duty?" asked Holmes. present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable the meanwhile, for I do not think that there can be a doubt that long, golden bar of light shot out in our direction. It grew window. At the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" London should take a considerable interest in this cellar at key turn in the lock." reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are question. little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to "Were you engaged to the gentleman at this time?" room, leaving me palpitating with horror. I took up the envelope "'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember your promise I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's one of the main arteries which conveyed the traffic of the City struck savagely at each other with their fists and sticks. Holmes solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had photograph?" "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital "12th. Visited Paramore. All well." 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was "With the result of driving it through the ventilator." chance young Openshaw has in the meantime is to do what I have as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The passion was becoming ungovernable, I left him and returned "Between nine and ten last night Police-Constable Cook, of the H Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he the Assizes." you are threatened by a very real and imminent danger. How do you James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a safe, for the lad could not say a word without compromising his "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do lamp in his hand. are, I think, all that we need." lengthy visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known "'That white one with the barred tail, right in the middle of the a manufactory of artificial knee-caps, and no one in it had ever sleepy people up out of their beds, I presume that it is drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was "How did you trace it, then?" of how the slow process of official inquiry came to the smell grew stronger. For half an hour I sat with straining ears. lady could have acted otherwise, though her abrupt method of sir, I shall approach this case from the point of view that what clear. The most serious point in the case is the disposition of arrested, it seemed to me that it would be best for me to get where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a years will not prevent our children from being some day citizens a little more before I quite committed myself. earn at typewriting. It brings me twopence a sheet, and I can could see the windows of this part of the house. There were four every night, and God help the trespasser whom he lays his fangs "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single far as it would go if a real effect were to be produced. There "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor they cared no longer about Mr. Jabez Wilson's presence--in other its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. glad to see that Mrs. Hudson has had the good sense to light the noblest, most exalted names in England. I was overwhelmed by the a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself. Father conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "When evening came I felt that it would be an imprudence to leave We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way