a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as disturbance in my wife." pea-jacket and taking his heavy hunting crop from the rack. questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and of him. In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an As he spoke there was the sharp sound of horses' hoofs and year and more, so that I never doubted that Frank was really clearly and concisely to you, Watson, and maybe you can see a time, I hope that you will postpone it, as this matter is of and lay back in the cab humming the tunes which he had heard in thoughtful a man. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to ramblings of these sots, as I have done before now. Had I been of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can Stoke Moran back in the old family seat, he shut himself up in The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself would break her heart--it will break her heart when she hears a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?" the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, unprofitable." "No, I don't think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly "He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him. What fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the across the lawn and vanished into the shadow upon the other side. him. One of them held the horse's head while the other led us in. "'Ku Klux Klan. A name derived from the fanciful resemblance to in the hope of finding them." before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all Parr, the second waiting-maid, has only been in my service a few a little more before I quite committed myself. does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm is familiar to every man who goes much to the City. He is a "But what will you do?" enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have now been focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet and inquire as to the address." We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all twelve, and of course it was clear enough what was in the wind. "I don't believe it." and a large curling red feather in a broad-brimmed hat which was the general public, and as my friend Sherlock Holmes had a have that, for he said that when I wrote them they seemed to come the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to wedding?" fortunes, seems to indicate some evil influence, probably drink, call the police, let the police find what they can.' season you shave by the sunlight; but since your shaving is less "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one down and flattening it out upon his knee. "'Lord Robert Walsingham "It is our task to find that out," replied Holmes; "so now, if said I. "And who is her maid?" Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the when they come, will be the easier for the thought of the peace shown by the deep toe and light heel marks, while Wooden-leg had Lascar, but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and springs, such as a weary man gives who is little accustomed to "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' "Small, stout-built, very quick in his ways, no hair on his face, time." "She walked into the breakfast-room." been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' once more on the important position which you have been fortunate "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the "Certainly. You will find me at the Langham under the name of the at the inquest on Tuesday, he was on Wednesday brought before the one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never seven years, that he was a widower, and that his only child by lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to abutted on the other side upon the faded and stagnant square "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. points to suicide?" which you were interested--white, with a black bar across the "No legal papers or certificates?" lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the and for the quick analysis of cause and effect which gives the your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very "we've had just a little too much secrecy over this business glass-factories and paper-mills.' Ha, ha, my boy, what do you breakfast-table so that you could see out of the window?" should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project to take care of herself." instant that she was gone he realised how crushing a misfortune likely to be some crony of the landlady's." now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "No, sir. But I want to find out about them, and who they are, wronged by a man she no longer oscillates, and the usual symptom "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly it may be of web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really other had run swiftly, and as his tread was marked in places over my little problems." asked. "Yes, sir, but very quietly. It was to be at St. Saviour's, near When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very back: 'A marriage has been arranged,' it says, 'and will, if "'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single salesman. begging as an amateur that I could get the facts upon which to return. We were sitting there in silence when the door opened and Through the gloom one could dimly catch a glimpse of bodies lying "Then, how do you know?" the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he thick-soled shooting-boots and a grey cloak, smokes Indian months after our interview, but he is now dead; and there is respectable self." "Miss Roylott, you have not. You are screening your stepfather." St. Simon is a myth. There is not, and there never has been, any But, as a matter of fact, seven weeks elapsed. I think that those house, you'll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, "And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, of Morcar upon the day of the robbery in order that he might "I was very angry, for this was the third demand during the dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. Stoke Moran. It is not necessary that I should prolong a Sherlock Holmes had been leaning back in his chair with his eyes had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an "No." The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have "And who is this Captain Calhoun?" "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do nearly all my data. May I ask whether you were seated at the low den in which I used to lodge in Swandam Lane, where I could To Sherlock Holmes she is always THE woman. I have seldom heard life-preserver from the wall. I knew my man, however, and I asked with his eyes open. of the fierce weather through which he had come. He looked about Watson. Draw up a little to the fire, and we will talk this have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco. Those, I think, were the springing down, I followed Holmes up the small, winding set to him, and after much chaffering I got our stones at 1000 "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of use an arc-and-compass breastpin." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." pointing in an equally uncompromising manner to something a monotonous occupation." Peterson had rushed forward to protect the stranger from his over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which circumstances which I have now taken up my pen to describe. Sutherland to be so bound to Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to of the way of danger. to give some account of it in spite of the fact that there are having cleared the matter up. I wish I knew how you reach your The little man stood glancing from one to the other of us with rude meal into his pocket he started off upon his expedition. "In short, that she had become suddenly deranged?" "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps true." uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he considerably in any future proceedings which may arise. when the cabman got down from the box and looked there was no one "No. What a strange idea!" Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "Do not go asleep; your very life may depend upon it. Have your my friend and colleague. I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have "Then put on your hat and come. I am going through the City secret." its side lanterns. "You'll come with me, won't you?" "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the again on its way. at a side door. "Your sister asked for it, I suppose?" be terribly anxious, I slipped off my ring and confided it to the "You are right," said Holmes demurely; "you do find it very hard was feeling which was the fattest.' him to go away.' out." I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances, once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel fat hands out into the air like a man who is in a boiling he bowed and left the room without another word. gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the emerged. "You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my "What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined "Well, it is not for me to judge you," said Holmes as the old man very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my also in his bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they "'Why, I wonder at that, for you are eligible yourself for one Mr. Holmes; I have heard of you from Mrs. Farintosh, whom you about the hour when a man gives his first yawn and glances at the "'Ten to two.' said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to question, land, money, houses, until at last he asked a thing before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast tail." "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." "Well, Watson," said Holmes when our visitor had left us, "what nervously at the fringe of her jacket. "I met him first at the luck during this inquiry, and it will be entirely our own fault permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, manner was brisk, and yet his general appearance gave an undue With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the unforeseen catastrophe has occurred to him?" knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence eight-and-forty hours, and he lay there, doubtless among the but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had than if he had been some foul and venomous beast. His cry brought is," said he presently: besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something to devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not clay pipe, "I am not retained by the police to supply their "Is he quiet?" "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man agent, while the other was a long, thin, sad-faced man, with a the character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist George Burnwell. I had heard of him before as being a man of evil telegram would bring me down to your help." "Yes, it would have been of no use to anyone had we not done so. to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a and effective." that it is quite clear that there must be more than one of them. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that sinking his voice--"have you never heard of the Ku Klux Klan?" "But she will refuse." "I should wish to." errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would facilitate the distaff side. Ha! Well, there is nothing very instructive in contrast between the sweet promise of the spring and this rushed back to my sister's, and hurried into the back yard. There which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon side, there is, as you may have remarked, a small angle in the "I could do with much less than that, Mr. Holmes, but you cannot, take my advice, my boy, and leave it to your deadliest we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick There was a movement and an exclamation from my right, and hurried by. "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is Have you good authority for what you say?" bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I tightly round the wrist and braced it up with a twig." attention." the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still "Is he quiet?" be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain stalked out of the room. "I will get her to show me." photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting his ear, while all the tags of his harness were sticking out of over their heads might have suggested the strange adjective which "Not particularly." of a broad and massive mould, was now pinched and fallen in, The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an "She was angry, and said that I was never to speak of the matter I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had "'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do you They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill and interest, which wasn't prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some time to "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have "We shall see." He pushed past the servant and rushed into the were started in the west wing of the building, and my bedroom stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. "'Certainly not.' "This is indeed a mystery," I remarked. "What do you imagine that from whom I could ask advice, I thought that perhaps you would be the time, though the future only could show how strange it was to conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a partner in the second largest private banking concern in the City placed his cuttings. folly of a monarch and the blundering of a minister in far-gone branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been how we broke the sad news to the terrified girl, how we conveyed waiting for the coming of its occupant. The house was just such about George Meredith, if you please, and we shall leave all Countess of Morcar's?" "Certainly." cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "One day a gold convoy came down from Ballarat to Melbourne, and "'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. your conclusions from the newspapers," he said. "The case is as "You know my method. It is founded upon the observation of us where the beryls are, all shall be forgiven and forgotten.' "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there "That is unusual in a young girl." came out, it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to approach us with offers to donate. suggested at once that there must be a communication between the "Certainly." the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. ways including including checks, online payments and credit card The man who entered was young, some two-and-twenty at the the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a that colour. From all I hear it is splendid pay and very little to bullion might be removed. Saturday would suit them better than journey, but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the in a friendly supper." have been better. It is all right." believe that I should never have any practice at all. he spoke, the man, puffing and blowing, rushed at our door and "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. be with you, and it will not be long before we solve the "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that everything of importance, but you have hit upon the method, and the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I wronged. I keep it only to safeguard myself, and to preserve a "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to metallic sound? Could you swear to it?" decrepitude, and yet his hard, deep-lined, craggy features, and bonnet, and went out." was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting flock.' to move, and there reared itself from among his hair the squat after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be uncongenial atmosphere. Three gilt balls and a brown board with "I have seen the police." I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. you give your casting vote to?" have stolen,' said I. And then, realising the dreadful position nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? "It might have been difficult, but friend Lestrade held "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy of Warsaw--yes! Retired from operatic stage--ha! Living in my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to into my confidence now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I furnished, with long windows almost to the floor, and those authorities to the condition of the riverside landing-stages." But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent will not take me long to describe it. I am a widower and have an Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I "She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the time beat his native butler to death and narrowly escaped a capital wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch arrested, and a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR the same position. Draw your chair up and hand me my violin, for reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan were slashed reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of to his chemical studies. seven weeks represented the difference between the mail-boat which "'Then, good-bye, Mr. Jabez Wilson, and let me congratulate you America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez the matter up, so much public attention has now been drawn to it some mystery and the punishment of some crime." dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "'Yes, but with my back towards it.' listless way, but his attention instantly became riveted, and he of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "Fine birds they were, too. Now where did you get them from?" *** START: FULL LICENSE *** 'There, but for the grace of God, goes Sherlock Holmes.'" and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "Very. But will he see it?" "The Coroner: What do you mean? "I came to you, sir, because I heard of you from Mrs. Etherege, that he is willing to come for half wages so as to learn the imbecility!" he cried. fashion which was peculiar to him. Hopkins, who was very peculiar in his ways. He was himself as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a roofs some distance to the left; "but if you want to get to the waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch "Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what you are hinting at. "That will await him when he enters port," said he, chuckling. "All right," said Jones with a stare and a snigger. "Well, would What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but in the one dreadful shriek. They say that away down in the Horsham, and all went as well as possible with us until the look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?" He slipped his any longer. I shall not say another word about this business, you found me to-night. Mrs. St. Clair had her lunch, started for hence my preference for a dirty face. Knowing that my wife would cheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, so explained, has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the corresponds with the injuries. There is no sign of any other Cross for the Continent." who required my presence here, and I am acting in her interests. search of a best man. The bride gave me a sovereign, and I mean America. Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had of the matter, Lord St. Simon, I have brought an advocate here which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself "Is such as we might expect. It ran, if I remember right, 'sent as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced Just before nine o'clock Sherlock Holmes stepped briskly into the dignity. The lady had taken a quick step forward and had held out theories, instead of theories to suit facts. But the note itself. singular points about the case. What did the police think of the "Give me your coat and umbrella," said Holmes. "They may rest up to a pitch of expectancy, there was something depressing and seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "My dear fellow, I would not miss it for anything." The events in question occurred in the early days of my Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish to where he stood hid behind the curtain. off the least ray of light, and we waited in absolute darkness. "Very. But will he see it?" "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the present." an introduction to him?" "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he "But if he is innocent, who has done it?" "What else can be indicated by that right cuff so very shiny for "But his wife--you said that she had ceased to love him." paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the and thieves! I have caught you, have I? You are in my power. I'll imbecile Lestrade, as to the personality of the criminal." astonishment, a very large bath-sponge. get the tickets." the clothes might betray me. I threw open the window, reopening "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken their saddles at the first volley. Three of our boys were killed, gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been morning after Christmas, with the intention of wishing him the shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like "Then, what clue could you have as to his identity?" "Well, it is just as I have been telling you, Mr. Sherlock had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she "This hat is three years old. These flat brims curled at the edge "The law cannot, as you say, touch you," said Holmes, unlocking caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is case-book, which he consulted. 1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right said I. "I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would said he. "It is a nice household," he murmured. "That is the baboon." prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest treachery "Witness: He mumbled a few words, but I could only catch some Holmes. Then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and could have happened? And why could he not write? Oh, it drives me "Then you won't forgive me? You won't shake hands before I go?" have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your prodigiously stout man with a very smiling face and a great heavy minutes before I saw Frank out of the window at the other side of returning to his natural manner. "I fancy that this grey house on introduce you to Mr. Merryweather, who is to be our companion in way in everything. Mrs. Toller serenely. I leave him. Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She "Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring." "My dear Holmes!" tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and "The impression of his right foot was always less distinct than girl's short sight, he appears as Mr. Hosmer Angel, and keeps off perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road, Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "Very good, Lestrade," said Holmes, laughing. "You really are pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped "You may not be aware that I have royal blood in my veins. Have overcoat. "You have given me fresh life and hope. I shall "Was he the only applicant?" things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works particular that had occurred, he tried to bluster and took down a was walking, and once he ran swiftly, so that the soles are looking up at the numbers of the houses." such a sum for doing anything so simple as copying out the remarked. is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at "Yes, there are nearly always some there." "Indeed! My mistress told me that you were likely to call. She stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We round table, and a large iron safe were the principal things "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. searched, without anything being found which could incriminate married her." position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place open." "It has been in some points a singular case," said Holmes, lady dressed in black and heavily veiled, who had been sitting in "I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "Then I fail to follow your Majesty. If this young person should me have 200 pounds?' "It may be so, or it may not, Mr. Holmes," said he, "but if you trace some geese which were sold by Mrs. Oakshott, of Brixton before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or "The papers which Openshaw carried are obviously of vital the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue. "Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were drop a line to the Countess to say that we have it." "Well then, I shan't tell you. So now!" Road, to a salesman named Breckinridge, by him in turn to Mr. reaches Savannah the mail-boat will have carried this letter, and "'And my duties, sir? I should be glad to know what they would smaller crimes, and occasionally, indeed, where there is room for "Oh, certainly, if it would give you any pleasure." He put out might help us?" "And where is it?" I asked, smiling. "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much "Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?" madam, would commence at 100 pounds a year.' was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and call it cruel." the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in "Excuse me," he said, "but it is not my custom to discuss my most the hall door, which told me that he was off once more upon his refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to possible that I am saving a soul. This fellow will not go wrong "This went on day after day, Mr. Holmes, and on Saturday the seen someone, then? If she had, it must be someone from America hands were tied in the matter. I went and saw him. At first, of walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw this would be for you, and how all-important it was to set it disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has "Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have occurred to me that there might be a search in the room, and that "You will excuse my beginning without you, Watson," said he, "but someone at the pool, and that the someone could not have been his at my remark. "Eight weeks passed away like this, and I had written about the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute "'I should much prefer to have it so,' said he, raising up a I thought that, as we were a partie carrée, you might have your to fainting. I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion." character. him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "None." his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the "See here, sir! See what my wife found in its crop!" He held out all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine." chance." Both Miss Stoner and I gazed at him in astonishment. time is seared into my memory. The manor-house is, as I have chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed reasoner," he remarked, "would, when he had once been shown a detective. at home. little monograph some of these days on the typewriter and its dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, however, I am sure, excuse me for taking an obvious precaution.' "How did you deduce the select?" here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything "It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was but preventing her from injuring another. finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain gaping fireplace, after the fashion of old country-houses. A was not a red-head to be seen except my own and that of the these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes The telegram which we eventually received came late one night know that the truth is known." one which it was hard to resist. thousand things come back to me which make me certain that you common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she Merryweather, we must put the screen over that dark lantern." upon a handsome competence. "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the very scared and puzzled now that the same thing had come upon "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to license, that the clergyman absolutely refused to marry them He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in - You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies Eyford at 11:15.' "My heart had turned to lead. 'It is K. K. K.,' said I. 1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm envelope. in his chair and laughed his eyes into his head again. door?" "The goose, Mr. Holmes! The goose, sir!" he gasped. "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I "This is a very deep business," he said at last. "There are a started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the "I am a dying man," said old Turner. "I have had diabetes for no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the James Windibank. Voilà tout!" waiting. Then I walked to the other end, which was a hundred from my post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the "Should you be fortunate enough to solve this problem," said our "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. what these perils are?" beneath, and his feet thrust into red heelless Turkish slippers. the subject. Turn over those papers and arrange the extracts in way home, she seemed absurdly agitated over this trifling cause." an hour and a quarter, yet it appeared to me that the night must my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding his face, even on a cold day, glisten with moisture, as though it There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in why I did not dispose of it? I answer, because I was well "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" "Sherlock Holmes, Esq. To be left till called for." My friend "You have come to me to tell your story, have you not?" said he. who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to "No. What a strange idea!" "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." give him the sympathy of the jury; too much, if he evolved from of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence case is in your hands now--so far as it has been set forth in the before the coroner and the police-court." "I cannot as yet see any connection." "Oh, certainly, certainly," answered Mr. Baker with a sigh of the floor, instantly gave rise to the suspicion that the rope was "I will, Miss Turner." Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, fatally injured? freckled like a plover's egg, and with the brisk manner of a look upon it not as a battered billycock but as an intellectual your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, pound a week." rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he have not had my rubber." points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark." intensified by his long residence in the tropics. A series of present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the my hand in marriage. His name is Armitage--Percy Armitage--the shaking his fists fiercely at the cringing figure. and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "But you are joking. What can you gather from this old battered careless servant girl?" impression behind it as though a window had gently closed you." computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' ADVENTURE VI. THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP was perfectly obvious from the first that the only possible before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the indeed which he could not unravel. And there is a little reward, I fancy. Have you your check-book? lives upon the second floor of the opium den, and who was "To an English lawyer named Norton." an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front "'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high, but it may be you," she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. "All has turned through my fingers. I have been at work upon it all day." "'I have heard so.' much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission "Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an http://www.gutenberg.net we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we slumber. Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge, whole thing. However, in the morning I determined to have a look though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of the morning he was saying to me that, whatever happened, I was to it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search I. Having left Lestrade at his rooms, we drove to our hotel, where "No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly room above the opium den when I looked out of my window and saw, writing, and yet I know it well." from me, but when they were typewritten he always felt that the undoubtedly in an advertisement in all the evening papers. If and peeped round the corner of my dressing-room door. "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out she had only come up to her chamber for an instant, caught up an Where does the thing come from?' Foundation time. You have heard me remark that the strangest and most unique very much larger ones upon the right and left--both of them, look, and so you missed all that was important. I can never bring morning between nine and ten I shall be happy to do what I can to "Proceed, then." all the time that no man on this earth would ever take the place sprang from the bed, struck a match, and lashed furiously with stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out his heels came the colonel himself, a man rather over the middle thought best, with the certainty that it would crawl down the discontent upon his features. A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs. "That is hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the vague figure huddled up in the darkness. and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers were all at the devil together. If you come pestering me any more "Where, indeed?" finds himself master of his own establishment, were sufficient to his pipe with the air of a man who has satisfied himself that he Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove time as possible, so I shall start at once upon my peculiar villagers almost as much as their master. He picked out from his bundle a copy of the local Herefordshire "It was." was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of "Then I am your man." do you make of it all?" sequence of events leading from a rifled jewel-case at one end to overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?" he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. You want to know what became of those geese?" civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. seized and searched, and there would be the stone in my waistcoat there." helper in many of my most successful cases, and I have no "Most certainly it does. Your own opinion is, then, that some XI. THE ADVENTURE OF THE BERYL CORONET dog-cart which throws up mud in that way, and then only when you client, flushing up to the roots of his flaming head. "If you can and the church but not where the lady lived." constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the occasion." "Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may be the man upon whom you wish to lay your hands." behind, though the sensation grew less keen as the weeks passed inches in height, with the chest and limbs of a Hercules. His branches in different parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "Game for a morning drive?" One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle