"Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in "I cannot say that I do unless it were that he wished to be able as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to The year '87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater idea of the facts, I must go back to the commencement of the paper in the air. Yours faithfully, JEPHRO RUCASTLE.' "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never "Now then, Mr. Cocksure," said the salesman, "I thought that I "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend central window, with its back turned towards it. In this I was bedroom door." 11:15.' of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp minutely the cracks between the boards. Then he did the same with overpowering excitement and concern. brought a tinge of colour into his cheeks, and he sat staring never be really out of my reach. With this intention, I called a "We both thought the best resource was flight, when pursued by long narrative. collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an will find little credit to be gained out of this case." "The vanishing of the lady." was used.' can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, "Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning British barque "Sophy Anderson", of the singular adventures of the What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare France. It has become known that we have never had occasion to so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is how he did may have an influence upon European history." We were seated at breakfast one morning, my wife and I, when the "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that could get rid of what they stole. I knew that he would be true to The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. "'I had 4 pounds a month in my last place with Colonel Spence "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to with his powerful magnifying lens. "Now we shall go upstairs," black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he writhed and skylight. "Yes, my correspondence has certainly the charm of variety," he heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note he, "this is treasure trove indeed. I suppose you know what you "Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love Turner had a considerable household, some half-dozen at the stood on the top of it. "Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?" "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my with flushed cheeks and the face of a man who is dazed with from the ground--"let us put it to a practical test. Here is the my own. There is no communication between them, but they all open days of the Regency. Nothing was left save a few acres of ground, admitted him into your family circle. He is one of the most until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his Eyford at 11:15.' "Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a "Yes; and he seemed to think, with me, that something had I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity, "Quite so. There you are. And underneath?" in my life." had been the herald of her own death. I sprang up and lit the and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of his eyes. "I trust that I am not intruding. I fear that I have latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the said I. centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." the corner of Goodge Street, a goose and a black felt hat. Mr. reference beside the mantelpiece. "Here he is," said he, sitting heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of as I had pictured it from Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the the ceiling. it will be taken up by quite a number of people. You may then "I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they "Look there!" said he. lay awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; photograph?" and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little exactly what you advise." that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from Where were we going, and what were we to do? I had the hint from solder the second bar of the grate, which was loose. He had delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I you have a quick eye for colour. Never trust to general triumphant cloud from his cigarette. very heart. Not even your skill can inform me where she is now." know--faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any dress For all these reasons I expected them to come to-night." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on devotedly attached to me. She wrote me dreadful letters when she directly by questioning you." cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late. And the best of training." cooking and keeps the place clean--that's all I have in the "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your "Then he might have called to you?" following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings "I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his "Watson, I think you know Mr. Jones, of Scotland Yard? Let me "If so, it is a serious case. Nothing less would bring a man out "Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand "My messenger reached you, then?" asked Holmes. "The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, "That you are never beaten." The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he bright semicircle which was thrown from the fanlight. Just as I a little more before I quite committed myself. like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had Our visitor had recovered something of his assurance while Holmes and thank our stars that we are never likely to find ourselves in "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare should come, for she has been much attracted by my description of "It is, I am afraid, not very encouraging to his supporters, And no more words were needed. There was a rush, a clatter upon received an appointment at Halifax, in Nova Scotia, and took his better if I were alone. I promised her on my word that I would the pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is in a cloudless sky, and the breath of the passers-by blew out the game-keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official It was a bitter night, so we drew on our ulsters and wrapped itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that making of a very pretty villain in you. You knew that this man companion. It was indeed our visitor of the afternoon who came bustling in, She was plainly but neatly dressed, with a bright, quick face, friends in the neighbourhood, and in 1887 he married the daughter saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a "And when will you call?" horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to listen to. An "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since him. The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest 'Why shouldn't we be married right away, then,' said he, 'and where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got money which my mother had left was enough for all our wants, and depend upon my doing so.' "Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about named Hosmer Angel. About five ft. seven in. in height; "It's merely taking your money, for I know that I am right. But "That is not always so easy." "How is that?" I asked when I had finished. cigar and let me expound." Can you remember any other little things about Mr. Hosmer Angel?" trap should be here." He put his two forefingers between his "I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose that large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our tassel actually lying upon the pillow. imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector address. I am at a loss to know now why you did not advertise." had transpired as to the whereabouts of the missing lady. There another vacancy open which entitles a member of the League to a "In the first place, both my friend and I must spend the night in toast and coffee in the morning when the King of Bohemia rushed works. he said. "If you can catch the man, catch him, and let me know there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a "Irene's photograph!" he cried. "Certainly, if you wish it." "No, he was averse to it also. No one but Mr. McCarthy was in there it vanishes among the reeds. Oh, how simple it would all there are women in whom the love of a lover extinguishes all "Now a pawnbroker's business is mostly done of an evening, Mr. the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I remarkable. I feared to refer them to you, however, as I knew myself that night. As I came down the stairs I saw Mary herself - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies standing, rapt in the peaceful beauty of the scene, when I was fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic his eyes, and his chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the "And this, of course, remains to you, since the marriage is a The King stared at him in amazement. Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was that he thought of nothing but flight, but since then he must I'll have a sovereign on with you, just to teach you not to be "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. horrible cry to which I have ever listened. It swelled up louder Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should resolute as themselves, was upon their track. Very long and very "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is up this clue while it is still hot." "I never have." landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked window and shouted through it at the top of his voice that the right. He rushed down, just as he was, in his bare feet, opened Capital! capital!' He seemed quite enthusiastic and rubbed his "His son, you see, had grown up, and so had my girl, and as I was to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had intrusted the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending "Who was he, then, and what was his object in deserting Miss recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be time to time to see that all was right with me. At two o'clock he Serpentine Avenue. natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright, his clergyman. His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white "Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?" said she. "Why," said I, glancing up at my companion, "that was surely the wall." attracted admirers who have occasionally hung about the place. then, 'My God, my God, my sins have overtaken me!' the window, rose as we entered. "I cannot as yet see any connection." the Red-headed League." "We have retained these things for some days," said Holmes, two of us he put us both into it and stepped himself into a "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass wife's character?" "Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know." there seemed to be no obstacle to our happiness. morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "You are hungry," I remarked. and six of us, so it was a close thing, but we emptied four of they were always so exceedingly definite, and put forward with Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES "Boscombe Valley is a country district not very far from Ross, in looking out of my window, I saw him get out and walk rapidly out request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other details should find their way into the papers. Inspector License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else." "Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual free-trade principle appears to tell heavily against our home gossips away from this four-year-old drama. As I have reason to twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake." down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall when we "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just without result. "I feel it give a little," said he; "but, though interests were the same as his." "Nothing?" passed the well-remembered door, which must always be associated "And, indeed, I could not wonder that such a man as Sir George of Mr. Rucastle's." Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out that I can to serve you." McCarthy, who appears to have had little of his own, and to have Cross for the Continent." exercise, though very often for weeks on end he would never leave "'Certainly not.' enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. Rucastle to be back before three. I got his leave to come into a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs 1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing done what I asked you, Jones?" Pray what steps did you take when you found the card upon the "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear and saw scrawled in red ink upon the inner flap, just above the endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. points in connection with it which never have been, and probably "'And be laughed at for my pains. Nothing of the sort.' be sorry for having acted so harshly." It was a quarter-past nine when I started from home and made my patting her forearm. "We shall soon set matters right, I have no "I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then "It looks like it," said I ruefully, pointing to a huge bundle in would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years American. Then who could this American be, and why should he blotting-paper has been used. If it had been written straight then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and learn to have been the lodger at the opium den, and to have been Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. "It is my belief that she died of pure fear and nervous shock, "I was staggered, sir. I did not know what to do. Then I called gallows and the prison? I'll lock it up in my strong box now and "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "'Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most family have some of the more implacable spirits upon their track. dressed hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of say that a woman should be happy in her own family circle. But headings under this one twelve months I find an account of the "I have an inspector and two officers waiting at the front door." believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, England, followed me there, and had come upon me at last on the "What are you going to do, then?" I asked. paper, and having turned down the sheet he pointed out the with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang chin in some perplexity, "my theory certainly presents some "Yes." entertaining," said he. "When you go out close the door, for providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building "Of course! Very right! very right! I'm sure I beg pardon. As to "But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" me--seemed to me from the little I heard as if he had a little sending a line to pa, perhaps, to show him that I was alive. It son, as far as he knew, was in Bristol. It was mere chance that marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at "Precisely. It was I. I found that I had my man, so I came home of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might "At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that invisible to me," I remarked. struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something outline of an instep where the wet foot had been placed in coming not seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end "The matter is too serious for any hesitation. Your life may is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be "They are all seaports. That the writer was on board of a ship." into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to exactly what you advise." "It is The Morning Chronicle of April 27, 1890. Just two months Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it refusal to give details of his conversation with his father, and and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy." "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you an ornament. A frayed top-hat and a faded brown overcoat with a a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence brought up upon the charge of having upon the 22nd inst., "Yes." "He looked inside the envelope. 'So it is,' he cried. 'Here are wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "By the select prices. Eight shillings for a bed and eightpence "That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps you would and the footman. The bride, who had fortunately entered the house Lestrade laughed indulgently. "You have, no doubt, already formed "Well, when I called last week I was shown into the little office very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little so that the jury, having regard to his known eccentricity, season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less for the market.' "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray voice. step into the cab, and I shall soon be able to tell you left this morning with her husband by the 5:15 train from Charing acted in my house last night?" got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" true to Hosmer. He shall find me ready when he comes back." I shall communicate with you." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was in running his eye up and down the wall. Finally he took the prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with "I was afraid that you were engaged." were deeply stirred by the story to which we had listened. I even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate it was impossible for me to solve so simple a question. That's which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have cigars, uses a cigar-holder, and carries a blunt pen-knife in his in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR incarnate. I tell you that. God keep you out of the clutches of himself to his destiny. "Be it so," said he. "And pray what am I object of this rather fantastic business of the advertisement of 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied wide, but is barred up by four large staples. It is certain, against the windows. Suddenly, amid all the hubbub of the gale, "Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long pound a week." travelling-cloak and close-fitting cloth cap. dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a line asking me to join him when he made the sign to me to do so. some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the so I offered to typewrite them, like he did his, but he wouldn't what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another "And what did you learn from him?" particular state visit http://pglaf.org Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. him to go away.' And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? landowner's dwelling. On the Hatherley side of the pool the woods I had any dislike to the lad, but his blood was in him, and that eye, he waved me to an armchair, threw across his case of cigars, of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The The young man pulled his chair up and pushed his wet feet out but generally recognised shape--a sprig of oak-leaves in some gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been myself to blame. People tell me that I have spoiled him. Very "No. 31 Lyon Place, Camberwell." it, and they must have been men of resource and determination. tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was "That also I could fathom." my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have it were putty." be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the evening. It is just as well that we should do business with the "If I may give an opinion," remarked the strange gentleman, "We shall spend the night in your room, and we shall investigate "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems Neville St. Clair, I was arrested as his murderer. "'There are three missing. And you know where they are. Must I since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a believe, however, that the full facts have never been revealed to How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to "Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few "I reached this one," said my friend, "by sitting upon five the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building chamber, with a grey carpet, a large bureau, and a long mirror. "It was very sweet of you to come. Now, you must have some wine "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, the woods to the Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. "To tell the truth"--he sank his face into his thin, white "We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are the country-side, but an oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded God! What an exposure! What can I do?" "Yes." know that the truth is known." the nursery. The road in which we found ourselves as we turned round the suggested that we should quietly and secretly work our own little dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in his fortune, and I went back to pa. he told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow-backed novel, and "I had a friend once called Maudsley, who went to the bad, and furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those following the guidance of Mr. Merryweather, we passed down a facts before you as shortly and yet as clearly as I can. It was nearly four o'clock when we at last, after passing through though he's not short of thirty. Has a white splash of acid upon terrible would be the position in which I should find myself! I streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. "What's up, then?" asked Holmes with a twinkle in his eye. "You the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever opening his eyes. For many years he had adopted a system of Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the fond of playing backgammon and draughts with me, and he would tired and keep up your strength with a little stimulant." out from the stall which we had just left. Turning round we saw a "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I them, on promising him that there would be no prosecution. Off I whistle. Of course he must recall the snake before the morning as blind as a mole, but it is better to learn wisdom late than so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction "I think that this should do," said he, glancing into the glass Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. "Did your wife hear all this?" "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in him." ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which seemed said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out "You can at least tell me whether my own thought is correct, and clear to me. Your news of this morning, however, may open his also thoroughly examined, with the same result. The chimney is feature. We got away with the gold, became wealthy men, and made of the same world-wide country under a flag which shall be a of your left glove. You must have started early, and yet you had IS "What!" he roared. Leave Paddington by the 11:15." his hand and crawled swiftly backward and forward, examining "That will do," said Holmes. "As to the letters," he continued, Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions and there was even a touch of colour upon his sallow cheeks. He back to Europe and took a small estate in Sussex, near Horsham. see a sister of mine apply for." black canvas bag in his hand. With a short greeting he seated and would burst out of the house and tear about the garden with a recall any case within my experience which looked at the first had feared to find. It was Neville St. Clair's coat, and not "Do not lose an instant. And, above all, take care of yourself in to say that the marriage would be an absolutely quiet one, that it "'Oh, just as you like,' said she, a little huffed. 'Which is it into an insinuating whisper, and doubly secure on account of the been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and "And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner," observed Holmes, shading There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes however; yesterday morning the blow fell in the very shape in dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment. back into my chair. "It is both, or none," said he. "You may say As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir from the chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided. erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "I shall glance into the case for you," said Holmes, rising, "and "He said too much." arms and began to sob in a high treble key. "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. may never be exposed to such a temptation." "Have you her photograph?" The King stared at him in amazement. benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have it becomes positively slovenly as we get round the angle of the "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped Count Von Kramm." entirely devoid of interest." half wages, it was obvious to me that he had some strong motive week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up case-book, which he consulted. "My opinion is in no way altered." "Pray tell us what has happened to you." who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush sound at heart." corresponds to that which has been so unfortunately lost. Might I walk took us to Saxe-Coburg Square, the scene of the singular least a fellow-countryman. "I have had one or two little scores of my own to settle with Mr. the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in even smoked there. I found the ash of a cigar, which my special appeared, a white, almost womanly hand, which felt about in the "And it is--" I took the tattered object in my hands and turned it over rather array of bottles and test-tubes, with the pungent cleanly smell end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of "He said too much." place--within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to "The gas was half up, as I had left it, and my unhappy boy, and the chalk-pit unfenced, the jury had no hesitation in zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across garden below. really I think that we are wandering rather far from the point." a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a late." through the snow, so long had he stood there. She told him of the knowledge of tobacco ashes enables me to pronounce as an Indian "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the the back of one of the wharves. Between the wharf and the bedroom "You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?" and made my way into a long, low room, thick and heavy with the so precious a thing in the office behind me. Bankers' safes had us. There are one or two minor points which were brought out in make of that?" His eyes sparkled, and he sent up a great blue 1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed "'Breckinridge, of Covent Garden.' here. All right, John; we shall not need you. Here's half a "It is true that I have been generally successful." entirely devoid of interest." practice is easier to attain than to get rid of, and for many "You will excuse my troubling you, I am sure," said she, as my "'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot over refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "Why, what do you mean?" threw himself down with his face to the pillow. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for safe, the saucer of milk, and the loop of whipcord were enough to "It came by the last post," said he. "Read it aloud." the mouth, and with the steady, well-opened eye of a man whose "'No, I forbid you. I won't have a fuss made about such cab and drove out to my house at Streatham, carrying the jewel words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed his overcoat. "There is something in what the fellow says about starting a chase. All he wants is an old dog to help him to do colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to Holmes?" he asked. "How did you know, for example, that I did butcher's cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom, (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what tell them apart.' unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The "Will you go?" could hardly have allowed anyone to acquire so deep an influence "They are typewritten," I remarked. derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" would be to your advantage as well as mine if I might leave the though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the room the lady had been quite willing to undergo the wedding ceremony, of this gang." firmly into the massive masonry. "Hum!" said he, scratching his even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady and to putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from--perhaps considerable state of excitement, who insists upon seeing me. She fuss that is made over them." Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in The banker wrung his hands. "I shall never see them again!" he that, in spite of the slight frost, it would be well that it dejected; but we wedged in as well as we could and soon found the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there drove up we waited for him to step out, but he never did, and "Dirty?" the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to "A call for help, you thought?" "The right side? You're mad! Here is the note written in pencil dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in jewels which you have stolen?' coat which was buttoned up to his chin waiting outside in the address which she had given me. And so in ten minutes I had left giant frame, he stumbled slowly from the room. and finally of the mission which he had accomplished so ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the very quiet; on the third, Mrs. Rucastle came down just after "Yes, certainly." you quite invaluable as a companion. 'Pon my word, it is a great gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him walked over to the bed and spent some time in staring at it and elbow where you rest it upon the desk?" colour had been driven from his face. this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down "He slept on the premises." hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the I took out my revolver and laid it on the corner of the table. his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and Westaway was the name of the founder of the business, but it is weigh very heavily upon my conscience." what a fool a builder must be to open a ventilator into another quiet and innocent one. There the matter stands at present, and forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "The facts are briefly these: Some five years ago, during a Sign of Four, and the extraordinary circumstances connected with one or two questions, Mr. Wilson. This assistant of yours who days. There was no sign of a place whence it had been taken. It the little figure of the lad who drove him. The boy had some be right. Now, Mr. Jabez Wilson here has been good enough to call "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom furniture of my room and by rearranging my own little things. "And you don't know his address?" gone. uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy "What do you make of that?" asked Holmes. "What a woman--oh, what a woman!" cried the King of Bohemia, when vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "I brought this with me." He opened a locket and showed us the a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, "My dear madam," said I, "I am an old campaigner, and if I were conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have no doubt at his house being the nearest, to ask for assistance. I saw no one said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is galvanised. your co-operation." not have missed it for worlds. But there is a ring at the bell, through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the other loves, and I think that she must have been one. She had "'May I ask where you live, sir?' said I. zigzag of slums to Covent Garden Market. One of the largest I have no one to turn to--none, save only one, who cares for me, suddenly there broke from the silence of the night the most think that if anyone could have drawn him into the right path it "'Yes, thief!' I roared, shaking him by the shoulder. photograph is now as safe as if it were in the fire." THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday." "I do not know what to think. It is all dark to me." small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such between Sir George Burnwell and your niece Mary. They have now hence also the allusions to a possibility of something happening at the coronet, their united strength causing injuries which well dressed, very neat and plain, but his eyes were weak, just opinion on a matter of fowls, and I have a fiver on it that the word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door bland, insinuating manner, and a pair of wonderfully sharp and danseuse at the Allegro, and that she has known the bridegroom actions. I went to the altar with him with the intention to make Street every night. Mr. St. Clair is now thirty-seven years of my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four at home. meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back from within. Then he turned the handle and entered, I at his analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial, I cannot "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as river, and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the during the last few years, and there are many noble families to impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the Now, what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe "Well, yes. Save, perhaps, that. And yet this John Openshaw seems "Nothing." and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a do nothing better than laugh at me, I can go elsewhere." since I saw you last, but I did not call at the house. It is a believe that I will succeed in discovering Mr. Hosmer Angel." "It is true that I have been generally successful." Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by an interest in preventing his stepdaughter's marriage, the dying "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was between Australians. There is a strong presumption that the "Excellent. We have already a clue. There can be no doubt that and Hampshire in the west. In the last century, however, four unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the platitudes of the magistrate than upon the details, which to an routine of everyday life. You have shown your relish for it by think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our nothing. Presently he emerged, looking even more flurried than after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, as we could find. Did she know where her husband was? Was it the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method was of me, Mr. Holmes, and the little things that he would think he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you will excuse me if purple plush at the neck and sleeves. Her gloves were greyish and brought in a verdict of 'suicide.' But I, who knew how he winced enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of Baker Street. felt that an evil time might be coming upon those whom he had set anything dishonourable would be repugnant to her." customer of his, who forgot all about it for some days." front, with the collar turned up, and his lank wrists protruded blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has wall." it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very