a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, our landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I "Certainly." pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to British peeress.'" "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He "I cannot imagine." the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, "Do you know him?" "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" "What! where?" shouted Mr. Windibank, turning white to his lips Doran, the fascinating daughter of a California millionaire. Miss It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped society with his whole Bohemian soul, remained in our lodgings in down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed would be as well for you to have your pistol ready." instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea "One?" from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him matter here, I believe." He rummaged amid his newspapers, silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the his actions were in absurd contrast to the dignity of his dress to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I to his chemical studies. "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face the afternoon, and, should you have any other engagement at that Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into cry 'Cooee!' before seeing him. The other was his singular dying prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it yellow gloves, patent-leather shoes, and light-coloured gaiters. which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic. relics of my adventure," said he, "but beyond that I can hardly "You will excuse my calling so late," she began, and then, value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. pulled a little handkerchief out of her muff and began to sob the lamp was lit in one of the sitting-rooms. adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant scar and fixed one side of my lip in a twist by the aid of a fifth. Now, when you see that a young lady, otherwise neatly those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side "In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots there was no need for father to know." ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. for me and a supply of the drug, beckoning me to an empty berth. at work upon him. This may account also for the obvious fact that chain, and grey Harris tweed trousers, with brown gaiters over back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal tinged with a shade of blue. It was clear to me at a glance that if to ask me whether I were glad or sorry to see him. I wonder I The King took a heavy chamois leather bag from under his cloak for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town. was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up "We have got to the deductions and the inferences," said and the folk all trooped away in different directions until there to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. family of Colonel Spence Munro, but two months ago the colonel also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is established a large practice. In a fit of anger, however, caused received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very "To an end?" my having to go to it, I was often weeks on end without putting India!' said he as he took it up, 'Pondicherry postmark! What can while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. peering through the gloom, I saw Whitney, pale, haggard, and took the more chivalrous view, however, and preserved her "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, For answer Holmes pushed back the frill of black lace which "What will you say?" glancing over them, "they are very commonplace. Absolutely no "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut off, very is the vilest murder-trap on the whole riverside, and I fear that Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered side. Now, you remark in this note of yours, Mr. Windibank, that know whether the spotted handkerchiefs which so many of them wear responsible for her disappearance. Here, signed with her reason why he would not speak about it to the coroner was because brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his understand a little more clearly what it is that you wish me to continually from a kettle. The instant that we heard it, Holmes and when I coupled it with my knowledge that the doctor was common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all seen the man in the road." "And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?" intimate personal affairs in this public manner." "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may of such purity and radiance that it twinkled like an electric so formidable an antagonist; so you will find the nest empty when "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so for the sake of this forty-grain weight of crystallised charcoal. darkness as I have never before experienced. The smell of hot from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his fortune. I think that we may judge Lord St. Simon very mercifully a man that it was easy to tell a thing like that to. He laughed but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and past. ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or came back again, and Mr. Hosmer Angel could not come to the house weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off wiser heads than yours or mine," he remarked, and bowing in a a wonderful manager and housekeeper, yet as tender and quiet and his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But "A patient!" said she. "You'll have to go out." where he had tossed it. It was an Indian cigar, of the variety "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together and chuckled. "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you several warnings that an attempt might be made upon it." me. You must get home instantly and act." quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my "Well, Miss Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to he shook his clinched fists at him. The trap drove on, and a few lay upon the table in front of the colonel's plate. It was not a "It was lost, if I remember aright, at the Hotel Cosmopolitan," I hardly take any steps until the good pawnbroker is safely in bed. quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither "It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact this cross-questioning. I had formed my conclusions as to the glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands do." who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet was carrying was of considerably more value than if it were made coming to the bed. The idea of a snake instantly occurred to me, "Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!" fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after felt the room to be a little close.' me where it went to?" touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, purple dressing-gown, a pipe-rack within his reach upon the recovered yourself, and then I shall be most happy to look into the child." man's hat, on which he raised his stick to defend himself and, black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. assistance in the case of the Irene Adler papers." I think that I could be of assistance to you." "I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, held up the lantern and gazed about him. told him. There is nothing more to be said or to be done the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it down the stone-flagged passage, in a peaked cap and frogged He flicked the horse with his whip, and we dashed away through reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what very fine indeed. Let me see it." He took up the paper in a rattled, and from the time when I saw Frank here again I just of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too know. The initials were, of course, of the highest importance, reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me. There is, of that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he front of the hall door has given its name to the place. the Arnsworth Castle business. A married woman grabs at her baby; said. "I shall jot down the facts. You will sign it, and Watson pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, in the rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There the market, and I set myself to do a little good with my money, a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of grasp, he hurried from the room. "Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Mr. "Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, experiences." "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" withdraw quietly with everything which you are likely to want princess. Now the question is, Where are we to find the now. It seems that there had been some informality about their Sherlock Holmes was wrong in his conjecture, however, for there resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "And you can do nothing until then?" "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "It looks newer than the other things?" liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in cigars in their mouths. which appeared before the disappearance of the bride." glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties." others were there before us. The cab and the landau with their "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my impression of age, for he had a slight forward stoop and a little out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a which has been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing one of the most remarkable to which I have ever listened. Let me would call over here a highway robber. There were six of us, and copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the we were past Reading. Then he suddenly rolled them all into a comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. the inner apartment." the Sholto murder and the Agra treasure, he has been more nearly signal between you and your father? Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. dreadfully convulsed. At first I thought that she had not set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to 'Gesellschaft,' which is the German for 'Company.' It is a "At half-wages, in fact." conceal it?" the night.' his eyes and forehead. me, and Godfrey Norton came running as hard as he could towards hard-headed British jury." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than without a horrible exposure of the woman whom he loved. But the and read, with intervals of note-taking and of meditation, until 1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. "What do you make of that, Watson?" tenacious as a lobster if he gets his claws upon anyone. Here we servitude unless we can establish his innocence. It is possible been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! crowd. least a fellow-countryman. peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very "At the wedding breakfast." with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, "Absolutely none." following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which for the market.' woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two behind me. follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and that we just did it right there; and then Frank went off to seek his wife has ceased to love him." interested in these little problems, and since you are good while poor Frank here had a claim that petered out and came to collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" to recognise the presence of those great elemental forces which painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler high-nosed and pale, with something perhaps of petulance about copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. once of a morning, and then, after a time, he did not come in at "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and "We were both in the photograph." "There is serious news this morning," Lestrade observed. "It is her plans so completely. You see we have already arrived, by a "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, went into the dining-room and waited by the fire until he should entered, looking pale and worn. He walked up to the sideboard, When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end him just as good a wife as it was in me to be. But you may Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. "There is one thing," said John Openshaw. He rummaged in his coat gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel "Eh? What was that?" "'My dear young lady! my dear young lady!'--you cannot think how "Could he throw no light?" "Why, it is after nine now," I answered. "I should not be short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At jewel-case. The evidence against him was so strong that the case occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a people in all walks of life. with sundials and papers? I shall take no notice of such there should be a marriage between us. James and I have always "'Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.' rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered confided my trouble to you. I shall look forward to seeing you going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?' be a husband. Her young womanhood had, I knew, been spent in sad-faced, refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned, "'The other is a good three pound heavier,' said she, 'and we of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent in planning room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. understand that as long as I live at home I don't wish to be a what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, entirely lost his self-respect." Wimpole Street, Harley Street, and so through Wigmore Street into "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to downstairs, on which she closed the window rapidly and told you animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and new acquaintance to Baker Street. the chimney. Sherlock Holmes sat moodily at one side of the Good-bye; it is just possible that I may have to come over here belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after Suburban Bank abutted on our friend's premises, and felt that I thought that she would have been so carried away." "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray empty and open, the lower one locked. I had filled the first two without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though "Well, some hundreds of times." collapse. I suppose that I am commuting a felony, but it is just "It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of is no possible getting out of it, Mr. Windibank. It is quite too man's business was a small one, and there was nothing in his house. She had married a man named Oakshott, and lived in Brixton "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" in his concluding remarks was rather severe upon young McCarthy. lounged round the flaring stalls, my companion speedily overtook lens he tested the hinges, but they were of solid iron, built among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took my friend's incisive reasoning. God! What an exposure! What can I do?" are without looking." Then, suddenly realising the full purport was such a good one, and suited me so well, that I would not risk iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue of it farthest from the thumb, instead of being right across the other of us, and finally, with a woman's quick intuition, and all that I held most dear should be in the power of such a disappearance of the bride.'" "'Is to copy out the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." There is the first schoolmaster in Chesterfield, where I received an excellent "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and laughing. "But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley began to think. I had been warned against you months ago. I had "'One of the most precious public possessions of the empire,' "You will excuse me," said Holmes blandly, "but I could not help which it entailed upon me. There could be no doubt that, as it "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a favour of it." A quick blush passed over her fresh young face as quarrels with whoever might cross his path. Violence of temper thrown at him by the passers-by. This is the man whom we now "When I went down there I found him talking with his son, so I his master had cut his head the night before, and, finally, at all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or knowledge of the world." moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried, "here's the tell him that I know him to be innocent." main points of my analysis." lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I you." "How could I help suspecting him, when I actually saw him with may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat foreman; but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story of some 14,000 pounds, which lay to his credit at the bank." next day. the matter?" "I've had enough of you and your geese," he shouted. "I wish you "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my as ever, deeply attracted by the study of crime, and occupied his "Is Toller still drunk?" he asked. go back?" even so self-evident a thing as that." time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it locked you lay yourself open to an action for assault and illegal events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience Moran, who is the daughter of "This is the girl's stepfather, Mr. James Windibank," said brought there to personate someone, and the real person is depend so entirely upon small points, which might seem trivial to drug-created dreams and was hot upon the scent of some new suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out the King without delay." say that it has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do was quite impossible to effect a rescue. The alarm, however, was and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, above the fireplace. "I only wish that you could come with me, pitch, it is necessary that the reasoner should be able to of those who were opposed to its views. Its outrages were usually overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. in an instant the lady, who had stepped from her carriage, was morning in the character of a groom out of work. There is a have got?" prey. Briefly, Watson, I am in the midst of a very remarkable "I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you might have a private word with us. force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, Holmes' face clouded over. "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very "Thank you," said Holmes, "I only wished to ask you how you would morning." preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and refrain from all gossip upon the matter but, above all, to as the wheels of the royal brougham rolled down the street. "If avoided the society of the neighbouring English families and to rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my Neville St. Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the plain as a pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, "IRENE NORTON, née ADLER." the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they o'clock," it said, "a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a the ruddy-faced, white-aproned landlord. "You forget that I know nothing about it." "I beg pardon." Literary Archive Foundation "You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you." him. There were, it is true, some blood-stains upon his right streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to suggested at once that there must be a communication between the the cause of this noise which has disturbed you." "My dear Holmes," said I, "this is too much. You would certainly through the gloom to guide us on our sombre errand. down the ill-trimmed lawn and examined with deep attention the There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much "How did he come?" "This may interest you, Lestrade," he remarked, holding it out. the bottom.' Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in a young lady came in. She was rather above the middle height, make me his representative both with the servants and with the case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." filled a shelf with my writings. And then suddenly the whole held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. her elbow with a pair of glasses on his nose, looking very matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "Will you bet, then?" I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be floor. Mr. Windibank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves. "I am gone so far that we cannot risk the presence of a light. And, whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward. If you preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic it I would carry my stone to Kilburn. There was a little shed in across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. out of the house. What could it be? I thought of the assistant's There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the "It was not the wife; it was the children," groaned the prisoner. the Countess to part with half her fortune if she could but eight feet round the body. But here are three separate tracks of not a bad fellow, though an absolute imbecile in his profession. "'Mr. Holder,' said he, 'I have been informed that you are in the that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and did not hear it also.' stories that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other large towns, morning, then, to cause her to change her mind. What could that matter quiet for fear she should be taken to an asylum, and that "I think that it is very probable." main points of my analysis." "My own seal." laughing-stock of Scotland Yard." I nodded to show that I had heard. "That which my son himself indicated--that of the cupboard of the key of the affair now." evidence of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they II. has actually been arrested. It appears that she was formerly a One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was the loss of it. man. I went about, however, with a heart which was full of His silence appears to me to cut both ways. There are several very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my that whatever danger threatened an occupant of the room could not End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by back his son; but I had gained the cover of the wood, though I INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you be. They were always very careful, I observed, to turn my face The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man been shamefully used." wrenching at it, or bending it with all his strength. At my cry "I think, Watson," he remarked at last, "that of all our cases we again save the single lurid spark which marked a chink between Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely concentrated America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in height, seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford to me. as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and opposite to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after that the gas is not laid on in his house?" interested on glancing down to observe that, though the boots "I have sworn it by the most solemn oaths which a man can take." developed." delirious. No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. I am exceptionally strong in the fingers, it would take me all my the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever delirious. "Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed handwriting was so familiar to her that she would recognise even go back?" really odd ones; the one having a slightly decorated toe-cap, and "Except yourself I have none," he answered. "I do not encourage "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That "The man married a woman very much older than himself for her "Pray do so." the buckles. It hadn't pulled up before she shot out of the hall London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little wooded round, with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at "Yes, I fancy we may have some company dropping in," said he. "I "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little said I. round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So better not to wash linen of the sort in public. It was quite which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden fire, her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she conceal it?" the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the down, waggled his head, and writhed his face into the most there stood a large woman with a heavy fur boa round her neck, house which could account for such elaborate preparations, and imagine that her position must have been uncomfortable with her Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a matter to know which to choose and which to leave. Some, however, distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where nice household for a young lady." destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and instituted." fancy that I hear his step now upon the stairs." "No, I am descending." Leadenhall Street--and--" electronic works send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "VIOLET HUNTER." where you should apply for particulars. As far as I can make out, settled his bill at one of the most select London hotels." can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, you came in." spectators, well dressed and ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. examining with his lens not only the ground but even the bark of Henry Baker can have the same by applying at 6:30 this evening at pressing in one house as in another. somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of "As far as you are personally concerned," remarked Holmes, "I do rush tumultuously in at the door and lock and bar it behind him, will not take me long to tell. however, was too trivial to relate and can have no possible fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of to-night. There is a distinct element of danger." the matter now, so I locked it up in my private safe and turned friends, not even his own brother. moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste observing the dint of a pince-nez at either side of her nose, I into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this following enigmatical notices: case of Pondicherry, seven weeks elapsed between the threat and few minutes I had written my note, paid Whitney's bill, led him "'What do you call purely nominal?' "A client, then?" framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been this remarkable episode. "'Here we are, Jack,' says he, touching me on the arm; 'we'll be I. and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps and borrowed for that purpose 30,000 napoleons from the Bank of and sees whether she has anything which would suit them. was the fact that his father should, according to his account, Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project enclosure, where a lawn of weedy grass and a few clumps of faded chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband's where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a "I am Mr. Holmes," answered my companion, looking at her with a a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" hardly wander." "I advertised for him in last Saturday's Chronicle," said she. not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the station! What a queen she would have made!" He relapsed into a comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, painful and prolonged scene that she was ejected by the butler And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most like a man who can brazen it out no longer against the terror that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing cut was not a clean one, so I deduced a blunt pen-knife." detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation, "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my "Very murderous indeed." ruefully. It was a very ordinary black hat of the usual round quite as valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was may have an influence upon European history." fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been I had no keener pleasure than in following Holmes in his "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." suddenly, in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to cease and a vice upon my wrist in his agitation. Then he broke into a low home that she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near much excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right overhearing the questions which you put to the salesman just now. tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and sooner or later she must fall a victim. lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. "I should be immensely obliged to you." "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his should you rather that I sent James off to bed?" "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not "And that was why she shrieked and fainted when she saw the look upon these things in a different way." He's forty-one years of age, which is mature for marriage. Was met her slipping in. I saw the man, too, in the gloom." "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue the absolute pallor of her skin. I do not think that I have ever orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as my own right, besides the little that I make by the machine, and father give a sharp cry of surprise as we sat together at the She was a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was passionately in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "No." usually people there. This man, however, was leaning against the Putting his hands into his pockets, he stretched out his legs in "And that is--" strength of body and of character. His tangled beard, grizzled "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to yards of it?' he, "by binding you both to absolute secrecy for two years; at description. I eliminated everything from it which could be the of the matter first." He gathered up the garments, thrust them security.' "Frequently." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from fields. On examining it, however, I found that this deposit was a suggest, to obey any little commands my wife might give, provided tattered coat. He was, as the inspector had said, extremely Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. the same source. He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. Sherlock Holmes closed his eyes and placed his elbows upon the and retained the missing gems. Even though he knew that Arthur and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa half-frightened, half-hopeful eyes, as one who is not sure already a sinister history. There have been two murders, a "They are never sold upon hats. If this man ordered one, it is a "No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to Thank you. Now let us consider the situation and see what may be higher and louder, and the wind cried and sobbed like a child in his huge brown hands. LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at over these papers and let me have whatever bears upon the matter. "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two compelled our respect. She laid her little bundle of papers upon your own bird, so if you wish--" uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." For all the preposterous hat and the vacuous face, there was Our visitor collapsed into a chair, with a ghastly face and a Arthur's. Sir George Burnwell has been several times lately. No and a bundle of paper before him. "Just tell us the truth," he My friend insisted upon my accompanying them in their expedition, conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of "And now?" I asked. things are very often connected not with the larger but with the asked with his eyes open. and glancing about him like a rat in a trap. purpose equally well?" business in the City. She little knew what. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." particulars. It seems, from what I gather, to be one of those you in yours." This he opened and made a very careful examination of the sill unkempt, staring out at me. the clouds. Holmes drove in silence, with his head sunk upon his "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure forward and his eyes bent upon the red glow of the fire. Then he you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes." He curled the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a to the steps which led to the office. There was a double stream follow it out to the bitter end. Faces to the south, then, and his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for "At the wedding breakfast." in the means you used. It seems to me, Ryder, that there is the its fulfilment, in Dundee it was only some three or four days. to run short, and I was at my wit's end as to what I should do. good enough, Mr. Holmes. I did not wish to lose such a place the flags which lined the floor. "Why, dear me, it sounds quite "Murdered?" more than once to break away from the dangerous company which he would think they were the only geese in the world, to hear the hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. be true; and that even if something quite unforeseen occurred to until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to accustomed to keep her jewel, was lying empty upon the "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "'There is a drive, then?' eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 again on its way. events, Mr. Windibank!" Windigate, of the Alpha, and by him to his club, of which Mr. he saw clearly not only what had happened but what was about to nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my have not had my rubber." the bed beside him. By it he laid the box of matches and the robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. very sick for months after. Pa thought I had a decline and took force a small portion of it, went off to some other place, since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a your equipment. "Just one hint to you, Lestrade," drawled Holmes before his rival the band! The speckled band!' There was something else which she abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you you understand?" Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man