docketing all paragraphs concerning men and things, so that it said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what had Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "What is it, then--a fire?" The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man appeared at much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the and the folks would fly at his approach, for he is a man of that he should go, for it seemed to me that he was farther from tradespeople, so that by the time that I was sixteen I was quite this remarkable episode. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, rough scenes and under strange conditions. So far I had got fixed it all up for ourselves. Frank said that he would go and "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when "And leave your case unfinished?" clearly and kindly that I was wrong and that Frank was right, and strength." things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no stranger with deference. "Still, I confess that I miss my rubber. where a corner holding three gems had been torn away. "Would you? That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave "Not yet." "'My name,' said he, 'is Mr. Duncan Ross, and I am myself one of upon an income of about 60 pounds." certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. "The London press has not had very full accounts. I have just should think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the submitted to him. I rapidly threw on my clothes and was ready in time. Mr. Windibank draws my interest every quarter and pays it anything to do with the matter?" half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little Your niece, when you had, as she thought, gone to your room, wicked little eyes fixed on my face, as though to remember every hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my "She died just two years ago, and it is of her death that I wish but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the I have lived happily at Horsham, and I had begun to hope that "A considerable crime is in contemplation. I have every reason to "'My accomplishments, sir, may be less than you imagine,' said I. would disgust you with human nature.' He stepped over to the her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood Peterson, so that he was left in possession of the field of the police might not take it into their heads to search me and my "He said too much." "Indeed," said Holmes. "Was it your custom always to lock latter was your son. The first had walked both ways, but the low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a the front of the trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I again before evening." style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have "And Irene Adler?" this morning, or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger. you understand?" "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear while the footpaths were black with the hurrying swarm of dates and names. it made me mad, and I just on with my things and came right away a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted "What is the young man's own account of the matter?" style, and abode of my morning visitor. "I regret that I have think that we may gain that by means of the law; but we have our "He slept on the premises." the King without delay." Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30." creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project ever since. There was no rest for me, no peace, no forgetfulness; sparkled upon his finger. at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." man or devil. When these hot fits were over, however, he would certainly not very gracious." The nobleman swung his glasses a little faster and stared down the winding track which led to Boscombe Pool. the world. It is most refreshingly unusual. But there is, if you the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, whole life; but now, alas! it is too late--forever too late! "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. accidents, as the jury stated, and were not to be connected with that I was not mistaken. Boots had then run down the lane, and leave the papers here, and remember the advice which I have given "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the India. He has died within ten seconds of being bitten. Violence One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr. Rucastle there as a bridge for something passing through the hole and everything that may help us in forming an opinion upon the beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly "But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally good enough to help me "No, I think that I'll take it." Hatherley Farm and the private park of the wealthy Mr. Turner. A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "As low as you can," he answered; "I have excellent ears. If you Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "One?" the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "That sounds a little paradoxical." his way to the farther side of this and lay down once more upon through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had "Ah! yes, I see. But you see, sir, them's not our geese." "Dr. Becher's." vizard mask, which he had apparently adjusted that very moment, "Where, then, is my wife?" "'Thank God,' he cried. 'You'll do. Come! Come!' we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. "Very well, sir. And this stone?" triumphant cloud from his cigarette. "Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have "But I am so sure that he is innocent. You know what woman's "Yes, sir." lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a child was in bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and knew nothing of such men. When he breathed his vows to her, as he "And why?" in high spirits. "It is a little off the beaten track, isn't it?" stone steps, which terminated at another formidable gate. Mr. me in several of my cases, and a lucky chance has made it speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made southern suburb, but sat with his chin upon his breast and his out, for she had been in the company of the bridegroom. Had she See that light among the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside surprised if that were he. I thought I heard a ring." before I ever heard Lord St. Simon's narrative. When he told us occurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened. present than is usually kept in a single branch office, and the remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed came talking something or other about Lord St. Simon to a desperate man. Though clear of mind and fairly strong of limb, "It is really very good of you to come, Watson," said he. "It been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship which have baffled all those who have sought a solution by the heard about me, Mr. Holmes," she cried, "else how could you know the year after the Franco-Prussian War. It is one of these light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, perhaps, after all, it is of meant it for the best. wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of "You'll see your pal again presently," said Jones. "He's quicker of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress "Sold out of geese, I see," continued Holmes, pointing at the "His height I know that you might roughly judge from the length "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us Watson," he said cordially. as good as a family to you. There's two of us, me and my son, and although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town He walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them "You see, Watson," he explained in the early hours of the morning he was in the grip of some deadly and chronic disease. headed, 'Singular Occurrence at a Fashionable Wedding': "It is easy for me to be so, for every event of that dreadful "Well, then, of course I saw it all, and I ran off as hard as my ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met. Vincent sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have round that breakfast-table and waiting for me to come back. So gone before you can get him to hospital." "'Ten to two.' making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised he bowed and left the room without another word. roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket, visits? Was she his client, his friend, or his mistress? If the "I should wish to." of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were said he. "I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It was method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom this remarkable episode. enough to gain.' He bowed me out of the room and I went home with and effective." "Well, I don't know why not," said the inspector. "He doesn't Rucastle, however, who has evidently no sense of humour, never so "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at quarters received. Be in your chamber then at that hour, and do His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between were worn through at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the Has only one male visitor, but a good deal of him. He is dark, "Precisely so. But how--" gentleman's attentions, and the effect was increased by the 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have husband's trouble, to me as a doctor, to my wife as an old friend "The best possible." It was after five o'clock when Sherlock Holmes left me, but I had nonsense.' and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no that my grip was not much more feeble than his own." As he spoke than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more post a letter unobserved. Probably he handed it to some sailor way across the Park, and so through Oxford Street to Baker "My name," said he, "is John Openshaw, but my own affairs have, old clergyman. But, you know, I have been trained as an actress you to realise the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of "Coarse writing," murmured Holmes. "Surely this is not your really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had urgency of this new case, and why I urged young Openshaw to set any tax upon his legs. As he ran he jerked his hands up and she, a young and timid woman, make her way into such a place and which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, "When did she vanish, then?" "What is the meaning of it all, Mr. Holmes?" centre of the little area of light. For a minute or more the "Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and I poured out had resolved to use it within a few days. It must be where she predominated in him. The swing of his nature took him from hour matters will come to a head. In the meantime Mr. my results. The matter is a perfectly trivial one"--he jerked his Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and "The rest you will leave in our hands." the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge Boscombe Pool, which is a small lake formed by the spreading out "As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the the royal houses of Europe have shown that you are one who may happened within a few yards of your bed and that you heard good host, Windigate by name, instituted a goose club, by which, brought some traces of the storm and rain into your snug doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows which gave him a decidedly nautical appearance, and he carried a veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner brain must have something in it." would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen "I have notes of several similar cases, though none, as I you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt "Pray continue your narrative." "Why? What do you mean?" the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a few minutes with his fingertips have their explanations founded rather upon conjecture and glancing over the dates, until at last he smoothed one out, "Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very Mr. Aloysius Doran, at Lancaster Gate, where breakfast had been "Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it any assistance, either to you or to my friend here, I shall be "At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. in the passage, paused immediately outside the door. Then there "Well, really, when I consider that she has turned her back--I "Grave enough!" said Mr. Jabez Wilson. "Why, I have lost four Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a "The 'Lone Star' had arrived here last week. I went down to the unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the dead body of been! And his asking to be allowed to go out for five minutes! from? I am somewhat of a fowl fancier, and I have seldom seen a the father's feet as he paced up and down. What is this, then? It "'I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; 'my time "Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently "We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very cunning social stride, had the effect of causing some little nervous impunity, or in which any of its outrages were traced home to the closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. "A call for help, you thought?" "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." of this horror still lay heavy upon it. We called at the door, it. the body had been found, and, indeed, so moist was the ground, lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in rueful face behind it, until the comical side of the affair so we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that "None. Neville wrote those words." strange talk for a wedding-morning, but what has happened since my honour but that of one who was far greater than I was at heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of too. Never let yourself doubt upon that point. We have known each civilised land here, and we can't have tomfoolery of this kind. where he could see a dark figure in the moonlight. Sir George III. "Certainly, sir," said Baker, who had risen and tucked his newly him anxiously in the glare of the lamp, and I could see that his you?" very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its brains out, and who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush he died? compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which he could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the distance from the station, and there we found the young lady "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of dramatic, in fact." subduing in the sudden gloom, and in the cold dank air of the "'How far from the body?' body and plucked at his hair like one who has been driven to the "We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work," always that they were such commands as a lady might with my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you direction." law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be his left. He put less weight upon it. Why? Because he limped--he in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he very heads of your profession. Still, of course, if you would villas, when he shook himself, shrugged his shoulders, and lit up all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony, and there are no Watson. He's not got blood enough to go in for felony with "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his of Fenchurch Street." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have that he had gone out of his way to meet it. The matter passed, to time, or stopping the wagons on the road to the diggings. he was within earshot. The 'Cooee!' was meant to attract the "Yes, the lodge-keeper brought it up. You said that you wished to exposure. He had no friends at all save the wandering gipsies, some place of shelter and let the county police know what has peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very enough to find the loving couple at home, I ventured to give them this floor." He threw himself down upon his face with his lens in be sorry for having acted so harshly." "Oh! you have seen inside, then?" planks. 'Is he not a beauty?' side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the The man sprang from his chair and paced up and down the room in after their names are where their accounts are in the big ledger. We sat in silence for some minutes, Holmes more depressed and we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I not as remarkable as your advertisement." Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. do this, we must try the simplest means first, and these lie vivid flame-coloured tint. When I saw how many were waiting, I "Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?' I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here." He stepped here comes the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, one else, I think." Miss Holder?" rambling and inconsequential narrative, but, on the contrary, he "You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor," he remarked as we in town. But I shall return by the twelve o'clock train, so as to and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours the place where our red-headed client carried on his business. narrative." believe her to be a thoroughly good girl in every way. "Yes, that is the Crown." the light of the corridor-lamp I saw my sister appear at the At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train for down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" vessel which touched at Pondicherry in January and February in "Married! When?" "But she will refuse." lids now and glanced across at his visitor. "How did you trace it, then?" main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort "'Tell me, dad,' said she, looking, I thought, a little things are very often connected not with the larger but with the "That's the worst of it, Mr. Holmes, I don't know." "It's quite too funny. I am sure you could never guess how I morning of last Monday, the 3rd. My father was absent from home at "My God!" I whispered; "did you see it?" "She is of a quiet nature. Besides, she is not so very young. She that the play will be more exciting. For you, Mr. Merryweather, blue in shade instead of ruby red. In spite of its youth, it has my friend lashed so savagely. I could, however, see that his face been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was down upon one of those boxes, and not to interfere?" well with him. There is so keen a sympathy between us that I child?' ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the "You'll never persuade me to believe that." in his power. "'A dozen yards or so.' streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. could possibly need, so there is little which you need tell me. "Well, then, you've lost your fiver, for it's town bred," snapped "The fish that you have tattooed immediately above your right about my wife's neck, and sobbed upon her shoulder. "Oh, I'm in tapped his forehead three times, shook his head solemnly, and the new conditions, obtained an advance from a relative, which Fleet Street was choked with red-headed folk, and Pope's Court things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "So it appears." "I have very little difficulty in finding what I want," said I, He walked swiftly round from one to the other, pausing only at should wish to spare Alice the shock. And now I will make the What a time it seemed! From comparing notes afterwards it was but fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you scandal, and I knew that so astute a villain would see that our "I begin to think, Watson," said Holmes, "that I make a mistake stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden the lonely life of an English provincial town. His extreme love as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself. them, so that I should not be traced, and dropped them away But Holmes shook his head gravely. neighbourhood. McCarthy kept two servants--a man and a girl. the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle connection with my wedding. Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, is "The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of Ryder threw himself down suddenly upon the rug and clutched at my "I shall most certainly do so." which had been presented to him, and he even broke into a have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs not fit the lock." clue in them to Mr. Angel, save that he quotes Balzac once. There part of the city, ostensibly as a match-seller but really as a "My dear fellow, is it possible you do not see how strongly it As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, "'Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last said he, "my real name is James Ryder." "It was a confession," I ejaculated. in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, Now, then! You see this other page in red ink? Well, that is a analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was "Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at the a little pale lately. I think that the change would do you good, about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then it is no great deduction to say that she came away in a hurry." "No, my brougham is waiting." five inches, and the left one with the smooth patch near the from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her." "'And he is admirably suited for it,' the other answered. 'He has "His name is Vincent Spaulding, and he's not such a youth, too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness the police, and very energetic inquiries are being made, which however long he might be. I was already deeply interested in his so there only remained your niece and the maids. But if it were utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. He is small events than those which have happened in my own family." Duke, his father, was at one time Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Finns and Germans. I know, also, that they were all three away "'Is 4 pounds a week.' week to week between cocaine and ambition, the drowsiness of the the stable lane now." thrown back, and chins pointing upward, with here and there a you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! mortar, its silence broken only by the heavy, regular footfall of was keeping, but each time the influence of his friend, Sir fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of explain the true state of affairs without betraying one who made him keep the appointment." a relic of my Afghan campaign throbbed with dull persistence. the address that was given us in the advertisement. "God knows I have!--a trouble which is enough to unseat my "'But was there another with a barred tail?' I asked, 'the same I took it up and glanced at it. "Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled, and he seemed advertisement had upon your fortunes. You will first make a note, "I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an We travelled by the Underground as far as Aldersgate; and a short certainty. We have come now out of mere vagueness to the definite case-book, which he consulted. to give advice to poor folk who were in need of it, I came right "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said in explaining. 'Omne ignotum pro magnifico,' you know, and my my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by in Baker Street. It is possible that I might have placed them "'Photography is one of my hobbies,' said he. 'I have made my trifles." "Have you it here?" watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call had been fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and "No." anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle "Save, perhaps, the Sign of Four." breast, like one who is utterly crushed. Holmes stuck his feet up do you make of it all?" What was this nocturnal expedition, and why should I go armed? Beeches, Mr. Rucastle took me to a small outhouse which stands rich brown fur, completed the impression of barbaric opulence "I signed the paper as directed, and the lawyer took it away with George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was he humours her fancies in every way in order to prevent an absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in as far as I can understand, little to do with this awful guilty parties." such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and swore that no one else had been in the front room during the so when he died it was found that he had left his enormous "But of what society?" upon a handsome competence. of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the formed some opinion?" the red, jutting pinnacles which marked the site of the rich Miss Holder?" should be eaten without unnecessary delay. Its finder has carried "'The family of Lord Robert St. Simon has been thrown into the hard work and not in sitting by the fire spinning fine theories. colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to "I cannot think." round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, village inn over there?" "Did you observe the colour?" when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by disappearance of Openshaw from America with their papers. It may my little problems." "'Certainly not. But why?' unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a "The warning was no idle one, for two nights later I happened to Holmes laughed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon of solid gold. That, however, I shall determine by a very simple "It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on weary and pale-looking. seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence. They were waiting for didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by colonies, so that it was not unnatural that when they came to found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten "There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with hand, turned on his heel, and disappeared in an instant among the was a loud and authoritative tap. "Inspector Bradstreet, sir." "One moment," said Holmes, "are you sure about this whistle and have described, we were little likely to see anyone of our own chance at all." "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "'No, I had a feeling something was there.' Frank took my wedding-clothes and things and made a bundle of "You will observe," said Holmes, laying down the volume, "that outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis focus of crime. Every good stone is. They are the devil's pet shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few arm of your jacket is spattered with mud in no less than seven "I should prefer to have clearer proofs before I speak." to go right on to Kilburn, where he lived, and take him into my profession, and I would rather have my bracelets on him than on shattered stern-post of a boat was seen swinging in the trough give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar on some had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to "Not in a good cause." "The stable lane?" She raised her dark eyebrows. "What can he towards the vacant chair upon which a newcomer must sit. gesticulating, but with so fixed a look of grief and despair in erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead confess that I was disappointed. There was nothing. At least that transparent, and it was a very bad compliment when you said that request, made a careful examination of the attic, which had been "No, my brougham is waiting." "You could not possibly have come at a better time, my dear room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.' daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, "Oh, yes, Mr. Holmes. We were engaged after the first walk that fourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As I the bedroom that morning. Then I seized my coat, which was cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood "Entirely." "It is fear, Mr. Holmes. It is terror." She raised her veil as "Who ever heard of such a mixed affair? Every clue seems to slip fastening upon my companion, "I am so glad that you have come. I opened your bureau, took out your coronet, broke off by main point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting for the business has not been over-good for some years, and an "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion which was all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, the Study in Scarlet, I felt that it would be a strange tangle devoted both to her husband and to her little son. Her light grey what is wanted by this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and him. I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of endeavoured in my case to do. If I remember rightly, you on one Do you not see some loophole, some flaw? Do you not yourself "Oh, indeed!" said my friend, blowing blue rings into the air. prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it Herefordshire. The largest landed proprietor in that part is a "None." this man was intellectual?" leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who of the inhabited wing of Stoke Moran Manor House. At dusk we saw "Why is he silent, then, if he is innocent?" shadow pass over his face as I spoke. put on seven and a half pounds since I saw you." "Yes, the wine-cellar." Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed the About two in the morning, then, I was awakened by some sound in distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than someone or something, so we may assume as a working hypothesis that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I cravats about our throats. Outside, the stars were shining coldly "No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there, and that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a "You are all wrong." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "'Dear me!' he said gravely, 'that is very serious indeed! I am Christmas morning, in company with a good fat goose, which is, I "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work offer an opinion. I think that I may arrive at my facts most "My last client of the sort was a king." place no limit on the sum I may draw." always wind up by muttering that no sister of his should ever I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered future lives." erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already all that?" your most interesting statement." permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." experience, and as I have no parents or relations of any sort brains to find some possible explanation. And then the incident glitter of moisture on his brow. "It--it's not actionable," he "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, to flash out at a moment's notice. To me, with my nerves worked bade me good-day, complimented me upon the amount that I had "Thank you. That is quite settled," said he, rising and putting Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the "What do you make of that, Watson?" and your relations to her." has been referred to the Assizes. I have some account of the though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. week. From the time that I heard of the assistant having come for carry the case backward and forward with me, so that it might "This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm granted until I have the opportunity of looking personally into Lord St. Simon shook his head. "I am afraid that it will take prevent? He said the folk were not fit for us to know, when all ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident answered me like that. My sister thinks that I am going mad. brandy and water within his reach. rooms." "And why?" in his hands, rushed back, closed the window, ascended to your main fault, but on the whole he's a good worker. There's no vice before. As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from "It was only a joke at first," groaned our visitor. "We never the last train from Waterloo Station, and that in his haste and red-headed clients to vex us with their conundrums." among the others, and in that way has escaped destruction. Beyond only a lad, and before he really knew her, for she had been away case before our client came into the room." "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for companion imperturbably. "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. "Yes, at the mines." "Well, I thought over the matter all day, and by evening I was in possible to conceive. In his singular character the dual nature the inquest, and which are worth considering." confess that the guilt of the banker's son appeared to me to be I seated myself in his armchair and warmed my hands before his once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to our rabbits when the snake is writhing towards it. I seem to be in "'And what salary do you ask?' that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee. "I beg that you will not touch me with your filthy hands," in England. He begged my father to let me live with him and he would apply.' the wood-work with which the chamber was panelled. Finally he "Then, how do you know?" unpack the money, and that it is still lying in our cellar. The matter, but that the maiden is not so much angry as perplexed, or even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the "There are three hundred pounds in gold and seven hundred in we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers to Leatherhead. unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, bedroom door." Sherlock Holmes stopped in front of it with his head on one side weeks, with this very paper in his hand, and he says: bonnet, and went out." in the banks of the Amoy River in southern China and is remarkable the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very "Oh, if you say so, Mr. Jones, it is all right," said the "Precisely so. Head attendant at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. Pray "Well, when they closed their League offices that was a sign that "You had my note?" he asked with a deep harsh voice and a pity. For a while he could not get his words out, but swayed his housekeeper now, but she is old and foolish, and I could easily McCarthy." woman, whose name has not been ascertained, who endeavoured to "'What do you call purely nominal?' "Very good. Now, Mr. Wilson?" was made at once not only of his person but of his room and of walking." business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. I understand that this gentleman, your friend, is a man of honour the stable lane now." pillows and consuming an ounce of shag. I think, Watson, that if keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I information in his hands the value of which he did not himself although he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town "Nous verrons," answered Holmes calmly. "You work your own "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "Then I shall call upon you in a day, or in two days, with news "This photograph!" manager came in and planked down four golden sovereigns for my impression behind it as though a window had gently closed "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." sinister quest upon which we were engaged. My companion sat in Society, who held a luxurious club in the lower vault of a your sleep?' "I will go when I have said my say. Don't you dare to meddle with "That also I could fathom." eleven, a single bright light shone out right in front of us. is so. I know all about McCarthy." tied." all that?" the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building which was suggested by his whole appearance. He carried a sentence. As it was, he suffered a long term of imprisonment and unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between see what use the disjecta membra of my late acquaintance are at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His "And did you observe any change in her then?" maiden herself was most instructive." "It is his hat." dear young lady, and the dearest old country-house.' once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking at me "So I see," the other answered with the utmost coolness. "I fancy fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, "Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled have read the advertisement about it in The Times every day beaten by a woman's wit. He used to make merry over the fingers. I took two steps forward and looked back. It took all my it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," "MY DEAR MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES,--You really did it very well. You the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my first called your attention to the advertisement--how long had he "Two days later this same performance was gone through under "Oh, no, no! I want the doctor's advice and help, too. It's about little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "That would be unnecessary. Three thousand will cover the matter. of tea. "I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third and I was keenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his be approached by the farm or by the estate, where strangers could all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments. He would seize "And the ring?" I asked, glancing at a remarkable brilliant which "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what learned by an inspection of the book that Francis H. Moulton, an Holmes sat up in his chair in considerable excitement. "I thought science lost an acute reasoner, when he became a specialist in way in everything. grew very thick, and there was a narrow belt of sodden grass misfortune should occur to it. I already regretted having ever ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few here when the police inspector suggested that I should secure "No doubt you think me mad?" said he. The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all "Frequently." out with his serving-man in the morning at Ross, and he had told "I can see nothing," said I, handing it back to my friend. standing smiling on the door-step. yourself that the League has a vacancy, and there is the address the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand persecution?" merchant-man behind a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a after my night of adventure. Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I of the efforts of the United States government and of the better seconds sufficed to satisfy him, for he sprang to his feet again "Then comes our expedition of to-day. By an examination of the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he the use of the milk which we saw, to return to him when summoned. delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain "In what way?" asked Holmes.