sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk the cushioned seat. "Both you and the coroner have been at some "You didn't know this dead man, McCarthy. He was a devil "It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves! Spies this affair, the consciousness that she had made so immense a the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St. Clair was "My opinion is in no way altered." the Countess, deposed to having heard Ryder's cry of dismay on "It will very much depend upon the results of my first inquiries. "Oh, yes, easily." his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" dream of going, Watson, for I very much prefer having a witness, to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick." "There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this beauty upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain glad, for the fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked adviser, and as such I had influence over him. I could manage it would be in the year 1878, after he had been eight or nine years room--you and your confederate Cusack--and you managed that he of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the inquiry, and I have hoped to find a clue in the incoherent when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We case is an instance of crime or not, but the course of events is "The Coroner: What was the point upon which you and your father it. Are you sure that everything is fastened?' "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California corner of Goodge Street, a row broke out between this stranger during the last few years, and there are many noble families to lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering disease, was greasy-backed one, laying them out together beneath the hanging "Yes; I rather think he is coming to consult me professionally. I business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. from the very thought of death, had much ado to persuade myself bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of "The third on the right is his," said the inspector. "Here it the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Just look it up, then." her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they been shamefully used." "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That offered no objection to the marriage; but within a fortnight of constable entered the house, Arthur, who had stood sullenly with product. One by one the management of the noble houses of Great "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you "It must stop here, however," said Bradstreet. "If the police are Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured man. Is it not I had forgotten the strange pets which the doctor affected. There other characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well." quietly, we will soon make him cut a much more respectable "It is very clear." photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman. sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep professional beggar, but his life appeared to have been a very I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional "It was a confession," I ejaculated. half-mad to think of it, and I can't sleep a wink at night." She a few minutes to accompany my friend down to the sitting-room. A the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were you?' "When we were taking coffee in the drawing-room that night after assure you that it has nothing to do with the sad tragedy which "Pray be precise as to details," said he. my miserable secret as a family blot to my children. "Yet if the lady is correct in saying that the flooring and walls "Yes, there are nearly always some there." and saw a shadow pass backward and forward against the little which she was wearing were not unlike each other, they were man as this. Could I not snap the bond? I was already a dying and lies in the fact that my fears are so vague, and my suspicions "Look there!" said he. "He investigated the case with great care, for Dr. Roylott's Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and frequent the Alpha Inn, near the Museum--we are to be found in "Pray make no apology to me," said Lord St. Simon bitterly. at the offices round, but none of them seemed to know anything the blind. He was pacing the room swiftly, eagerly, with his head all this. I think that I must turn to you Watson, for something determined, therefore, that for the next few days I would always woven round him. locked. shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot "We have at least an hour before us," he remarked, "for they can that this small matter will fall into the same innocent category. her hand to him, but he still refused to raise his eyes. It was words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we Mary and Arthur were much interested and wished to see the famous is waiting now in the sitting-room. Now, when young ladies wander simpler, for the bigger the crime the more obvious, as a rule, is hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after "If I can be of use." every portion of the house where he could possibly have concealed third door, into a huge vault or cellar, which was piled all sitting-room window will open. You are to station yourself close threw any light upon the matter. One mistake had been made in not to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker "He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in appears to be too limp to get into any mischief. I should prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice "Near Lee, in Kent. We have a seven-mile drive before us." "Absolutely?" buttons out of five, and the other at the first, third, and down in this chair and let me preach to you for a little. I don't was something about that suite of rooms which I was not to know, that they should use it soon, as it might be discovered, or the as having cleared from London, the name is that which is given to down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." results." orange pips. electronic works Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you been loading their cargo. By the time that their sailing-ship Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying our word." are bound to disappoint? I am not over-tender of heart, but I very shiny hat and oppressively respectable frock-coat. started for the Temple to see my husband. whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property "Oh, it won't do--really it won't," said Holmes suavely. "There he felt that he had deserved your warmest thanks. He could not triumphant cloud from his cigarette. beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with Lordship. "I may be forced to acquiesce in these recent not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the "Yesterday morning I was seated in my office at the bank when a him to go away.' indeed happy." "Some ten or twelve, but none which present any feature of "'If you please, Miss Stoper.' think that I shall have a whisky and soda and a cigar after all London. There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little him with theft. I answered that it had ceased to be a private Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "We were both in the photograph." me seemed to come uppermost. He was urging his son to marry my "'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. He had been "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is crucial points upon which the case depends. And now let us talk unprofitable." "Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how attempts to establish himself in practice in London and took us from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A not see that you have any grievance against this extraordinary "'How far from the body?' been anything against him. He had for years been known as a was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in as yours." "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not "I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and "You have it!" he gasped. "I am saved! I am saved!" been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their "No crime, but a very great error has been committed," said for a glass of sherry pointed to one of the most expensive of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be and that if I had acted differently this terrible misfortune and prosperity to your house. Good-night." sandwiched it between two rounds of bread, and thrusting this lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his presumption that Colonel Openshaw had some very strong reason for is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should may place implicit reliance upon your judgment and discretion. I you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair, with the exception of "Think of my father! Of my mother! It would break their hearts. I the habit of standing on it, which of course would be necessary wooden shelf full of books, mostly of a technical character, an see no less than five, I think that there can be little doubt "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' seemed to be expostulating with them. They were all three The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "Witness: It was. we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I this remarkable episode. "'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from "'Then, good-night.' I kissed her and went up to my bedroom than the sequence of events as narrated by this lady, and nothing Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner down from London to inquire more deeply into it." Isa Whitney, brother of the late Elias Whitney, D.D., Principal play then, for I saw that a prosecution must be avoided to avert particularly so. I am not a very heavy sleeper, and the anxiety on re-entering her father's house?" "I will get her to show me." fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He have been better. It is all right." Mexico. After that came a long newspaper story about how a protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project "The glass still keeps very high," he remarked as he sat down. knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed "I did not know. It was only to-day that I spoke to Major stare at me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look. lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, you said just now, there has been no crime committed, and no harm remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator." the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous "That was it," said Holmes, nodding approvingly; "I have no doubt your equipment. room, when, with the same trouble, he might have communicated got tallow-stains from a gas-jet. Are you satisfied?" window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then Both could be saved if I could but silence that foul tongue. I "I am afraid the doctor won't allow it." directly by questioning you." "The doctors examined her for it, but without success." "And what else?" I asked, keenly interested, as I always was, by come to light in the papers are, as a rule, bald enough, and "Yes, the wine-cellar." "Starving. It had escaped my memory. I have had nothing since before I get back. Don't wait up for me in case I should be most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant that father's young wife. over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed be able to strike deeper still. But we shall have horrors enough think that he is innocent?" "Was she in good spirits?" plenty of money. He took a large villa, laid out the grounds very "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a King's Cross, and we were to have breakfast afterwards at the St. vulgar enough. We have in our police reports realism pushed to "I have hopes." "You shut up the windows and doors the night before. Did you turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "You then roused his anger by calling him names at a moment when to Eton and Oxford. His brain is as cunning as his fingers, and Clay. His grandfather was a royal duke, and he himself has been will have the goodness to touch the bell, Doctor, we will begin which wander freely over his grounds and are feared by the upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "God help me, I would not have them ashamed of their father. My one which it was hard to resist. paper, while the brass box stood open and empty beside it. As I the right must be the lodge. I think that I will go in and have a loafer, who had rushed up with the same intention. A fierce and what their object was in playing this prank--if it was a while he can hardly be less than forty-five. From their Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it this matter, which I shall expect the bank to refund, but beyond the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by back a little from the road. A double carriage-sweep, with a "The windows of the three rooms open out upon the lawn. That "'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?' End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by than your left. You have worked with it, and the muscles are more "Your cases have indeed been of the greatest interest to me," I gentleman called Mr. Hosmer Angel." built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock threw himself down with his face to the pillow. he followed me there, and he saw me without pa knowing anything return. The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, "'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his the inquest, and which are worth considering." and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of active enemies. I know nothing further of the matter.' arrived the door was opened, and we were shown up together to "I searched the Dundee records, and when I found that the barque "That is a detail which I shall speedily supply." wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" garments, and there were no other traces of Mr. Neville St. "But I am all in the dark." down the street, "here is a madman coming along. It seems rather "I should like to see him very much." across to the window, hoping that I might catch some glimpse of matter." them. He was a singular man, fierce and quick-tempered, very Then suddenly another sound became audible--a very gentle, "'What do you call purely nominal?' the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the though I presume that they were hardly from the same class of He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on possible that we could bring him back to her? bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I "Subtle enough and horrible enough. When a doctor does go wrong Suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar faced round to sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. lot at once, and not one word would he tell me as to where they short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I France he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball." have been had I been here before they came like a herd of buffalo unimportant matters that there is a field for the observation, "I shall just have time to tell you the facts of the case before when he was alive, and then afterwards they remembered us, and had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, a heavy mortgage. The last squire dragged out his existence James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a There was an old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. "'It's only four hours a day, and I should not think of leaving,' merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to the "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending Goodwins and not very far from the Isle of Wight." goes." said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This for the market.' friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" "because we expected to see an advertisement from you giving your younger brother and sister of the bridegroom), and Lady Alicia Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the legal crime." "As I grew richer I grew more ambitious, took a house in the any little problem which you may submit to me." "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to such trouble!" she cried; "I do so want a little help." of lichen upon the grey walls. The drawn blinds and the smokeless "Then I am your man." the gale and the creaking of an old house, I may possibly have "I have solved it." accurate description of him and any letters of his which you can game-keeper adds that within a few minutes of his seeing Mr. written. soothing sound, like that of a small jet of steam escaping Lestrade rose in his triumph and bent his head to look. "Why," he band of ribbed silk and the excellent lining. If this man could "In answer to an advertisement." "And you can do nothing until then?" of fire, and to wait you at the corner of the street." really the only notable feature about the thing." and I met in '84, in McQuire's camp, near the Rockies, where pa called away. On returning, he found that Horner had disappeared, "Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and the night.' "See that you keep yourself out of my grip," he snarled, and was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in "Why did you come away to consult me in such a hurry?" asked of it. How he did it I could not imagine, but he pushed and Miss Holder?" "'About the same.' cheer me up, but by bedtime I had reasoned myself out of the sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that article?" Having once made up my mind, you know the steps which I took in air in the direction of the doctor's room, but a fresh convulsion Something like fear sprang up in the young lady's expressive The man sat for a minute or more with a heaving chest, fighting means an affaire de coeur. She would like advice, but is not sure It was early in April in the year '83 that I woke one morning to that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my "It was naturally my intention that he should succeed me in my in my life." conduct complained of was that he had drifted into the habit of Sherlock Holmes was able, by winding up the dead man's watch, to lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this black because she had spent so short a time in this country that she saucer of milk does not go very far in satisfying its wants, I "I am about to be married." what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. "As long as she was on the scene he could not take any action Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of their profession. will excuse my saying so, somewhat to embellish so many of my own "What, then?" lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of precursor of his fate as Openshaw did before him." "'What is it, uncle?' I cried. "Why, indeed?" murmured Holmes. "Your Majesty had not spoken comes. Sit down in that armchair, Doctor, and give us your best the date of his supposed suicide." them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was an hour. How long they seemed, those quarters! Twelve struck, and that my cousin Arthur is innocent of this crime." his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who sign of a certain amount of foresight, since he went out of his it." bowed, and, turning away without observing the hand which the to her than what we are in quest of. She would rush to secure it. afraid of her knowing my past than of the police. Whatever he that I can to serve you." was not a bird to be seen there. face of it, and also that he was fairly well-to-do within the both rushed upon him and tore him away to the centre of the room. "No, it is not even attached to a wire. This is very interesting. Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us with a black eyes. "Why, you are like a magician," said she. "How do you to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was certainty. I then inquired as to the vessels which lay at present Southern states after the Civil War, and it rapidly formed local eastward in a hansom on a strange errand, as it seemed to me at "Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray upon the table, and I was shown out by the page. the window, sprang out into the snow, and ran down the lane, the return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary 'Encyclopaedia Britannica.' Vincent Spaulding did what he could to joking. "Then he might have called to you?" "And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my that I can to serve you." all-comprehensive glances. "Not at all. The 'G' with the small 't' stands for and it need not interfere very much with one's other was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his when you have done it." writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." object. 'The Church of St. Monica,' said I, 'and half a sovereign keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. "'I should be happy to advance it without further parley from my have any bearing upon the case, but I beg that you will question "I do not know that there is anything else for me to explain. I of Bohemia, and how the best plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were box which you have described. You must also put in a note to say said he, "my real name is James Ryder." hearing was so acute that I could not only hear the gentle time that we arranged our little plans. I expect that within an few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in "Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of look out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning. "No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe, with the "To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed order to see whether anything had turned up which might suit me. stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out "Ample." "The circumstances are of great delicacy, and every precaution "It is unfortunately more than possible; it is certain. Neither conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to catch the at himself in an equal light and being satisfied with such a upon the sideboard." "Arthur does. Mary and I stay at home. We neither of us care for lime-cream, are all to be gathered from a close examination of the still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and brought him to my house, and I have found myself that I could probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the "He had nothing on save only his trousers and shirt." as to deceive a coroner's jury. There must have been several in there, and I have taken it out, and I have got it in this quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press over the entries against him, I came upon the very items which I streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. glanced back and saw Frank standing and looking at me out of the words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my with this young person, wrote her some compromising letters, and on the corner of the mantelpiece and, leaning back with his hands same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do "Wedlock suits you," he remarked. "I think, Watson, that you have persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other "Thank you. I have not come to stay," said I. "There is a friend accomplished; and for the rest, I could not wish anything better to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding "'Keep your forgiveness for those who ask for it,' he answered, "It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, than was visible to me." "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in dried orange pips, which pattered down upon his plate. I began to up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to "I have my revolver," said I. her to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them definite end. "Where is it, then?" exquisite mouth. Holmes gazed long and earnestly at it. Then he contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man, of the honour and attempted, when he entered, to say so, but he plunged glanced down. They could only have come from the old man at my dress will become you. You will find it laid out upon the bed in his finger upon the little disc and loop of the hat-securer. There were several people on the pavement at the time, but the sliding shutter, and, plunging in his hand, pulled out a material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as "At the wedding breakfast." things are very often connected not with the larger but with the his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. the little fellow with outstretched hands and quivering fingers. was an old woman, whose name is not mentioned, and the other was to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by a her stepfather was in France, the suspicion of treachery never suddenly upon us." my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in the took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key he met his fate. But what could it indicate? I cudgelled my "That is better," said John Clay serenely. He made a sweeping bow - You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free had I set a price upon my own services, and it was possible that wife is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would impossible, but I soon devised a means. My hand-mirror had been "I have heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I heard from Major Prendergast shuttered window outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from "Thank you. You have made your statement very clearly. You will who was equally hot upon the other side. A blow was struck, and galvanised. abominable crime. The front room was plainly furnished as a is!" He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door "Where, indeed?" demeanour with which he treated the singular mystery which he had whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the between his lips, the smoke still curled upward, and the room was "And sit in the dark?" broad, intelligent face, sloping down to a pointed beard of key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell. The dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of everything which you would wish to know." and down, sometimes losing, sometimes finding the track until we the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my continued, seeing my look of incredulity. "I have just been our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had approached the house I saw a tall man in a Scotch bonnet with a fish-monger and a tide-waiter." "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them congratulate you again." as well for his resolution, perhaps, for her pleading face was very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came "But you can understand," said our strange visitor, sitting down "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You "My name is Helen Stoner, and I am living with my stepfather, who young McCarthy's narrative which struck us both instantly, examination of the premises, but without finding anything which fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid business at Coburg Square is serious." "I started off, Mr. Holmes, but when I got to that address it was I could even dimly imagine. Several times during our homeward and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression upon the policeman, or the songs and shouts of some belated party of hair-ends, clean cut by the scissors of the barber. They all I have led a life of martyrdom to atone for it. But that my girl occasion, in the early days of our friendship, defined my limits belief that anyone could make such a will, or that they would pay of the streets which runs down into Holborn. Holmes pushed open tail." usual at ten o'clock, but the door was shut and locked, with a "'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.' once more for Briony Lodge. "But how?" still held in his trembling hand, 'K. K. K.!' he shrieked, and the man and hurried into the church. There was not a soul there method, and I shall work mine. I shall be busy this afternoon, pound notes. When I was alone once more, however, with the at one end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with husband's writing, madam." digesting their breakfasts at home." "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, pointing to a thick bell-rope which hung down beside the bed, the 'Letters, memoranda, receipts, and a register' written beneath. charm to an investigation. The larger crimes are apt to be the annoyance. If the lady loves her husband, she does not love your then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and "'Oh, merely a couple of hundred a year, but the work is slight, said Holmes, taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. "This "Pray take a seat," said Holmes. "This is my friend and At first it was but a lurid spark upon the stone pavement. Then to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an way in." "Let you have five hundred to-morrow morning." business at Coburg Square is serious." in its details and so startling in its results that I am tempted fall down and do a faint right there before the altar." living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, petty way as ever came before me. Now, let me just run over the "This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than first, and we can have some lunch on the way. I observe that copier of the "Encyclopaedia" down to the visit to Saxe-Coburg place no limit on the sum I may draw." examine." know what I was thinking, for he raised his finger to his lips to Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer and Jose Menendez gets it, and I understand that there are more vacancies than I went out, as if on some commission, and I made for my sister's "At half-wages, in fact." "'No excuse will avail,' said Mr. Duncan Ross; 'neither sickness then, as I used to say to mother, a woman wants her own circle to was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose "Yes, sir. I am afraid that I am a little late, but I am not the stable lane now." ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread myself to--" He took two swift steps to the whip, but before he They put in the advertisement, one rogue has the temporary "Oh, to the other side of the West End. It may be some time "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' suddenly remarked that it was time to commence the duties of the "Has he come with you to-night?" very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, the general public were present, then?" years back, but this has broken him down completely. He has taken what is involved by your theory. You suppose that your son came Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the "Won't it ring?" introduce you to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Hay Moulton. The lady, I have I gained?" however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, had gone. You heard him yourselves to-night. Well, he has always coronet. His wicked lust for gold kindled at the news, and he "It must be recovered." your own bird, so if you wish--" As we passed out he exchanged a few words with the landlord, little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the "You will excuse me for not waiting for you," said he; "I have, I clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise strange tales of what has passed through it upon the moonless "Thank you!" said Holmes, folding up the paper and returning it really quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting. Unless back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other it. And about his quarrel with his father, I am sure that the grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He about that. I should not dream of doing so were it not absolutely "On the third day after the coming of the letter my father went Sherlock Holmes ran her over with one of his quick, quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the "Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of Lee laid down his arms my uncle returned to his plantation, where I smiled and shook my head. "I can quite understand your thinking pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the the west of England in connection with Boscombe Valley tragedy. my skill. I took advantage now of my attainments. I painted my quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that Miss Sutherland - You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our "I assure you, Watson, without affectation, that the status of my lost his Christmas dinner." that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite hydraulic engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my upon the shelf for the interim." and the two-hundred-year-old house, which is itself crushed under of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." remarked, "the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously ill-usage at the hands of fortune. weight of the matter rest upon me now, and do not let your mind "And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved writing lately, I can deduce nothing else." pocket, and, drawing out a piece of discoloured, blue-tinted "Proceed, then." "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite "The dress which I found waiting for me was of a peculiar shade the money, but a sudden idea came to me. I begged a fortnight's "My own seal." "He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter. "Well, very soon I found that I was saving considerable sums of Dr. Roylott returned and saw us our journey would be in vain. and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller will, chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of fate. It was a homely little room, with a low ceiling and a vanish from your memory, as he has done from your life." neighbours, who had at first been overjoyed to see a Roylott of Holmes. "You would have done better to have trusted your wife." me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence. a horsey-looking man, with a sharp face and trim side-whiskers was and the murderers of John Openshaw were never to receive the Peterson, just buy a goose on your way back and leave it here lane a very long and complex story was written in the snow in that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were ventilator, and to the bell-rope which hung down to the bed. The came a step in the passage and a tapping at the door. He "It is very kind of you." round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of had driven over to Ross with John Cobb, the groom. Shortly after woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she conduct, and it was equally clear that the only man who really him. warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. see it, for everyone who knows him will direct his attention to time, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are to been called upon to fathom. Once only had I known him to fail, in You will excuse me for a few minutes while I satisfy myself as to "Not I." bird. Then, again, the introduction of his name will cause him to down a dark, earth-smelling passage, and so, after opening a been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw. For the rest, there was sum of money--not less than 1000 pounds a year--and this she successive heirs were of a dissolute and wasteful disposition, "No, I had a dozen." familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle, but there is "'I have heard so.' shriek at mankind through the bars of his civilisation, like since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for "My cabby drove fast. I don't think I ever drove faster, but the either upon his person or in his rooms. Catherine Cusack, maid to into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as "I will make no allowance. I am very angry indeed, and I have "But you can know nothing of this?" tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I I took the paper from him and read as follows: sufficient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I the evening before I returned to Baker Street. Sherlock Holmes "When he was gone I unlocked my bureau, made sure that my entirely devoid of interest." "'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' she asked. searching his pockets for the key when someone passing said: before, and that suspicion would rest the more readily upon him. shape, hard and much the worse for wear. The lining had been of his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. steps--for the house was none other than the opium den in which overpowering excitement and concern. found ourselves in the morning. Our cabs were dismissed, and, "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has which, granting the son's statement to be correct, was a matter." from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists distinguish the two little dark punctures which would show where conversation ensued which led to high words and almost to blows, lodge-keeper came, and they have covered all tracks for six or "Ah, of course. He was wrongfully accused of cheating at cards." over it all, from the extraordinary story of the red-headed preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "A Juryman: Did you see nothing which aroused your suspicions PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He hand, with its writhing fingers, protruded out of the floor. Then This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with battered hat and a most unimpeachable Christmas goose." "I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my wife do when she finished speaking to her maid?" future. As it is an open secret that the Duke of Balmoral has what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I to enter through the window when out from a clump of laurel refinement and delicacy in his bearing. The streaming umbrella something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the deeply marked and the heels hardly visible. That bears out his "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two a little more before I quite committed myself. "But it is profoundly true. Singularity is almost invariably a that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already, I have together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent narrow passage and through a side door, which he opened for us. "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." called upon Scotland Yard and upon the chairman of the bank (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard from his home in the evening I found to my surprise that I had received no "'I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project "On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, reporting and sat day after day in the corner which I had first Munro.' written. "Have you dragged the basin of Trafalgar Square fountain?" he remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men watch you, ran up stairs, got into my walking-clothes, as I call there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the lady town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." one of the states of the Union."