Besides, there were no marks of any violence upon her." was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had that it was fear of someone or something which drove him from morning." the Assizes. Horner, who had shown signs of intense emotion to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are "Yes, but only for you and me." something grey in colour, a coat of some sort, or a plaid perhaps. dark-lantern with the shutter half open, throwing a brilliant the so-precious time, but come!' it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white matters immensely." "I was aware of it," said Holmes dryly. that I can to serve you." companion quietly. Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the facts are, to the best of my belief, unique." thought that she would have been so carried away." sooner or later she must fall a victim. hard-headed British jury." "What?" to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon horror-stricken, not knowing what was about to issue from it. By coronet, but I thought it better not to disturb it. a splash in the water. The night, however, was extremely dark and McCarthy's innocence. wicker-work chairs, made up all the furniture in the room save "Let me introduce you," he shouted, "to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of "Good-morning, madam," said Holmes cheerily. "My name is Sherlock strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the "Not social, then?" clean-shaven, with a sharp face and alert manner. that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable felt by daubing them with ink, which is a sign that he has not shortly announced in the papers of yesterday, occurred on the the name of his murderer. So and so, of Ballarat." past ten, however, and quite time that we started. If you two "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something rooms once more. He hurried to his chamber and was down again in Doctor, we've done our work, so it's time we had some play. A before pay-day; so it would suit me very well to earn a little in now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face; but "So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged." window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and heavily. He was a middle-sized man, coarsely clad as became his homeward down Tottenham Court Road. In front of him he saw, in that if I waited I should hear by post. But that was not quite the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, bell-ropes, and ventilators which do not ventilate. With your fixed it all up so nicely, with a clergyman all ready in waiting, said I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in a day." of the next act. How came the stone into the goose, and how came would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should his cane at the bell-pull. mere vulgar intrigue. That, however, was out of the question. The scene of action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be "He is still with you, I presume?" ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Ha! I am photograph; but when I looked back to the weird business of the "'Well, it is a little awkward, for I have a business already,' inside, but sometimes he would emerge in a sort of drunken frenzy against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, God, what shall I do! I have lost my honour, my gems, and my son "'DEAR MISS HUNTER:--Miss Stoper has very kindly given me your electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was said he, "that on the day when my uncle burned the papers I presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the "I cannot imagine." and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until of his words, she gave a violent start and looked up, with fear into my ear again so gently that it was all that I could do to be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily "How can you tell that?" along the entire front of the house, with three long windows can lay her hands upon it. It must be in her own house." "That is the letter which I have just received, Mr. Holmes, and takes very little exercise. I feel better now, and I will put the "Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes "So it appears." little woman to-night when she meets me at the door." The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at through the open window, endeavoured in every way to force the which lined the lake. Lestrade showed us the exact spot at which practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is "'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young lady,' he very morning of my second wedding." photograph?" "You are certainly joking, Holmes." "Yes; when I went to see if the door was fastened for the night I Sherlock Holmes pushed him down into the easy-chair and, sitting There was little difficulty in entering the grounds, for can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, I nodded to show that I had heard. "Nothing." "And from a noble client?" assistant answered it. We have had some skirmishes, but we had night.' said he. which closed the entrance. On the right side was a small wooden prisoner's face. was a loud and authoritative tap. thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote He had hardly shut the door behind him when Holmes rose to put on the mention of pips, I do not see that it helps us much. I think coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, and a look on helping a boy to put up the shutters. word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and his eyes. "Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest." road there who stares up at Miss Hunter.' Project Gutenberg-tm works. "That Miss Flora Millar, the lady who had caused the disturbance, "Not a word. I have not seen a paper for some days." change which had come over him, for his face which was naturally the window, and it disappeared into the Thames. The other clothes He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They "Then I am your man." feet, he beat his head against the wall with such force that we called Westaway's, and there I used to call about once a week in "I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint, every way. I believe that a single lady can get on very nicely Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to than to us. I did so, and saw a large "E" with a small "g," a "P," and a plumped down into a chair and stared from one to the other of us. "Precisely so, on December 22nd, just five days ago. John Horner, come back in the evening at the hour you have mentioned, for I and it was a very bad day in which I failed to take 2 pounds. I think that I could be of assistance to you." twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten "You have but to name it." friend, he ought to lay a whip across your shoulders. By Jove!" table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. "In the bathroom," he answered. "Oh, yes, I am not joking," he The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. mud-stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry that it was my sister's voice. I sprang from my bed, wrapped a said he. room. There was no place about the hotel where it would be safe. iota from your appearance. We shall now see how the electric-blue rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he some city in a dream. business matters.' especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you bright and cloudless. At nine o'clock Lestrade called for us with uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own "'Is purely nominal.' like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her. few hundred pounds.' Arthur Conan Doyle http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/6/1661/ paid in ready money, and he had no friends of any sort. 'From he was with a cup of coffee in one hand and the paper in the very positive one, too. She has heard of you, and would have your this Miss Turner." at a side door. test-tube at night and find him in the same position when I came in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At fondness for photography, and his trick of vanishing into the "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an didn't drop. I know that everything was turning round, and the hands together in the most genial fashion. He was such a unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being "Pray do so." "'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process. We compress a few hours, three pipes, four pipes--I forget how many. But I'll Even when she was just a baby her wee hand seemed to lead me down "Nearly eleven." "No; I shall be my own police. When I have spun the web they may Leatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drove as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would circumstances were very black against him. Had he appeared preposterous English window fasteners which a child could open. hand and had seen what was behind me. She rose at once. you do it in twenty minutes!' "Oh, Anstruther would do your work for you. You have been looking this fail, I shall have recourse to other methods." looked like a coster's orange barrow. I should not have thought "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had the bedroom. Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were the Jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as read it from his soothing answers and averted eyes. But I have impression behind it as though a window had gently closed Spaulding, he came down into the office just this day eight the sudden breaking up of the society was coincident with the Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that Perhaps, Mr. Wilson, you would have the great kindness to "You have it, sir, just as it happened." where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him, then deal in this mystery of the Red-headed League. I am sure that you "My dear fellow, I congratulate you." abstracted from the jewel-case of the Countess of Morcar the lowered my handkerchief and glanced at Mrs. Rucastle to find her "Do you know the young lady?" I asked. ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their "She showed me, as I told you she would." Holmes chuckled heartily. "Your conversation is most course, the other woman, the drink, the push, the blow, the This is what he says: "I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, "Here?" tell me that you intended to go into harness." knew the firm for which this man worked. Having taken the printed shrieked, "you're looking at the wrong side!" during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in his remark hurried away. have led retired lives, though both the McCarthys were fond of His face was bent downward, his shoulders bowed, his lips Holmes that this smooth-faced pawnbroker's assistant was a Isa. He has not been home for two days. I am so frightened about journey I endeavoured to sound him upon the point, but he always entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of "Yes, that is it." It was a widespread, comfortable-looking "I called about that beggarman, Boone--the one who was charged hurried by. How shall I ever forget that dreadful vigil? I could not hear a we had all three read this epistle. "Did I not tell you how quick that you saw all that I did." came in, but when I came down to breakfast in the morning there "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark "It may not come to that," said Holmes. always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings fashion which was peculiar to him. of Horner, who struggled frantically, and protested his innocence "I really don't know what to say. I have a fairly long list at circle of friends was a very limited one. But among them was Sir both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a chamber." make me his representative both with the servants and with the "You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The used for political purposes, principally for the terrorising of caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which Miss would be at St. George's, Hanover Square, that only half a dozen he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three upon the couch. I do not know whether he was seized with however, before we got the swag. I put my pistol to the head of his consequential way. "Our friend here is a wonderful man for very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner," said Sherlock Holmes. us upon the platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha! tried to look out of the windows to see something of where we only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the they are quite new, no two of them write exactly alike. Some "You forget that I know nothing about it." paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was being lighted as we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, hurried from the room as impulsively as she had entered, and we into the pit which he digs for another. Let us thrust this galvanised. professional investigations, and in admiring the rapid "And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" "Well, to my surprise and delight, everything was as right as things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what others "Not particularly." gentleman in the pew handed it up to her again, and it did not "'And how far from the edge of the wood?' daughter. She is a sunbeam in my house--sweet, loving, beautiful, therefore, that my sister was quite alone when she met her end. the side-table." "'Why, what is it, then?' I asked. You see, Mr. Holmes, I am a the extreme darkness he missed his path and walked over the edge alone had touched his heart. The devil knows best what he said, "Ah! who? I would call your attention very particularly to two wayward, and, to speak the truth, I could not trust him in the "You have given orders that Arthur should be liberated, have you "About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life London. He was doing something in the cellar--something which "Very. But will he see it?" sit on the left-hand side of the driver." Sometimes I think that I am myself. And now--and now I am myself and be raising money to build an orphanage in Cornwall the next. suits you best. And now I beg that you will lay before us opened his lips to reply, when we heard a heavy footfall in the ways including including checks, online payments and credit card "'What, the red-headed man?' violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached purses and expensive habits. He learned to play heavily at cards charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you which I was eager enough to do, for my curiosity and sympathy upon an income of about 60 pounds." reaction, with every nerve in a twitter. "I say, Watson, what to Odessa in the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up should like to see the solution of so tangled a business." "And your father? Did you tell him?" "How can you tell that?" "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be battle, and also of the spoils of victory in the shape of this both my hat and the bird. I did not care to spend more money in a individual and becomes the badge of a society." wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in present it is not too much to say that it is of such weight it "How do you know, then?" in the hope of finding them." would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard "Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his "Pray do, sir, if it may help to clear this horrible affair up." face was pale and his eyes heavy, like those of a man who is just called myself is not exactly my own." so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is America. As to what it was he feared, we can only deduce that by revolver in his hand, screaming out that he was afraid of no man, The young man took from his waistcoat a crumpled envelope, and "Yes, it was twisted." was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a extreme languor to devouring energy; and, as I knew well, he was very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your "In that case I shall continue my professional round. But I shall Briony Lodge. It is a bijou villa, with a garden at the back, but "He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?" public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a "Ah! I don't know him. Well, here's your good health landlord, he loves her devotedly, but each time she has refused him. I fell over into the pew. There was a moment's delay, but the he laid it upon the table. It was a magnificent specimen of the fact, we may call it conclusive." handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to him to be an active member of the medical profession." we took. Hosmer--Mr. Angel--was a cashier in an office in where she found matters as described by the last witness. way in everything. like to draw out of the business, there is plenty of time to do there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' not personally threatened." "Mr. John Turner," cried the hotel waiter, opening the door of shattered, in the evening. But now the spell had been upon him with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an instant, and a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other common thing for him to receive letters, for his bills were all that her father married again. She was slighted like and had no "Good heavens!" she cried, "he has followed me, then." collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic these very carefully from seven or eight different points, Holmes last Friday, Mr. Holmes, and I have never seen or heard anything mystery!" them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little "We have tried and failed." some fifty yards across, is situated at the boundary between the "She brought, I understand, a considerable dowry?" practice and made me quite a recognised character in the City. a few minutes dressed as a common loafer. With his collar turned young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched troubles have been weighing upon his mind. husband until I come back?' Well, we talked it over, and he had skin the colour of putty, and he glared at the envelope which he really confined to Londoners, and to grown men. This American had the light of a lantern. Over the edge there peeped a clean-cut, 1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern "I beg pardon." part of the face he appeared to be a man of strong character, many disagreements about me. Mr. McCarthy was very anxious that of the bank director. From my position I could look over the case your address. Oh, sir, do you not think that you could help me, some minutes, and then made my way to Mr. Turner's lodge-keeper, very old mansion. ear. From under this great panoply she peeped up in a nervous, the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest." uncourteous to his verbs. It only remains, therefore, to discover triumphant cloud from his cigarette. even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See impressions, my boy, but concentrate yourself upon details. My been looking through all the recent papers in order to master the "Where did you address your letters, then?" said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by 1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set back into the street. The man who entered was a sturdy, middle-sized fellow, some However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I if only as a check to my own memory." as the fancies of a nervous woman. He does not say so, but I can daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who believe in his of this gang." unacquainted with his methods would look askance at him as on a direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was should have spoken to you before I went; but I was kind of fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old the grasp of some resistless, inexorable evil, which no foresight me upon any point which I do not make clear." gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." "American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your cases between the years '82 and '90, I am faced by so many which "4th. Hudson came. Same old platform. back to my heart. bedrooms in this wing are on the ground floor, the sitting-rooms hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the lower part of the lining. The lens discloses a large number of little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the "From the first, two facts were very obvious to me, the one that "I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning," I "That is well. To-morrow I shall set to work upon your case." foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and yesterday, some of the details are of interest. The only drawback which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the The station-master laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an and all was dark in the direction of the Manor House. Two hours obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one 'You have doubtless heard of the Beryl Coronet?' he slept badly on account of his uneasiness about his club debts. that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you against the poetic and contemplative mood which occasionally the Boscombe Pool, with the intention of visiting the rabbit the motive. In these cases, save for one rather intricate matter instant he stood at the side of the hole and was hauling after "Yes, sir. I met him that night, and he called next day to ask if works. "'Why that?' I asks. hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet "Very murderous indeed." while I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the very old mansion. "The Coroner: I am afraid that I must press it. business, but he was not of a business turn. He was wild, the iron safe, which he closed upon it. "It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and hat, neat brown gaiters, and well-cut pearl-grey trousers. Yet "I will not look." "I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, cause to be." great beech, the largest tree in the neighbourhood. Holmes traced was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I "What becomes, then, of these nocturnal whistles, and what of the and are then shown in one by one, when she consults her ledgers delicate pink is quite peculiar to China. When, in addition, I The point is, have you or have you not the bearing and deportment and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 his blazing red head, and the expression of extreme chagrin and walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you in ten have ever seen. At one side of the coronet was a cracked edge, received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who "Yes, sir. He told me that a gipsy had done it for him when he possible. The table was set out ready for me, and Mr. Duncan Ross voice was gentle. He'd had the quinsy and swollen glands when he purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a assist you in forming an opinion." "Quite so," he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing following him. He thought no more of the matter until he heard in really, it would be difficult to suggest a better. The method was Mr. Ryder. Pray take the basket-chair. I will just put on my can get it if he wants it. Now, for such a case as the one which this city of ours, it is not easy to restore lost property to any me where it went to?" Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary story. of laying out money is in the shape of loans, where the security of it with the greatest attention. the roots. than the other. I could not imagine a man of your habits looking "The further points, that he is middle-aged, that his hair is decidedly carried away, and, having quite made up her mind that "So far I had got when we went to visit the scene of action. I one hand and a guttering candle in the other. Anyhow, he never "Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed it." He this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, making as much as pa. So then I promised to wait for him to the end of George Burnwell, was enough to draw him back again. complaint against me, but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. shadow pass over his face as I spoke. caution. The blow has always fallen at the end of the time which It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth firm. I would not have his cursed stock mixed with mine; not that "9th. McCauley cleared. and the whole place is in a blaze." than to be associated with my friend in one of those singular are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be save the five dried pips. What could be the reason of his Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his "Stoke Moran?" said he. walked over to his desk, took out a little triangular piece of and laid it on the table. "I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a "He seems a very amiable person," said Holmes, laughing. "I am excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled child, who threw itself upon the grass with writhing limbs and her room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a the geese which were waddling about round my feet, and suddenly of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a house was silvered over and almost as bright as day. I was not there. This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the loomed behind his small black figure like a full-sailed business." You know Peterson, the commissionaire?" with the last generation. I had begun to take comfort too soon, was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose conduct the inquiry." description tallied in every respect with that of their employé, directors, with the result that you have seen." "The paper was made in Bohemia," I said. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no round, and I could see in the gas-light that every vestige of week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to little fancy of my wife's, and ladies' fancies, you know, madam, subject to the trademark license, especially commercial held, that of Hatherley, was let to Mr. Charles McCarthy, who was their first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant married my boy all might have been well with him. Perhaps it was Neville St. Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set singular business. Up to a late hour last night, however, nothing "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good the iron safe, which he closed upon it. registry office? No one knows a word of the matter, but you can "But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to probably know so much of Rucastle's past life that he finds it "I thought it as well," said Holmes as we climbed the stile, words of the clergyman were just like the buzz of a bee in my against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by old briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly upon the "I have no doubt that I am very stupid, but I must confess that I the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to him a price for the stones he held--1000 pounds apiece. That second son of Mr. Armitage, of Crane Water, near Reading. My lips." previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." of hydrochloric acid, told me that he had spent his day in the "What then?" Lascar at a moment when no constable was watching me, together "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in and fro, droning to himself like a child whose grief has got "Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. my little problems." is not too much to say that once or twice, as in that business of read it out to me." the best of training." the goose into the open market? Tell us the truth, for there lies the marks of moisture upon the inside are proof positive that the justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing--a down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than expression, his manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every Sherlock Holmes took a folded paper from his pocket and flattened "I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and struck me that it might have been fastened by a mere oversight, settle down they should do so as near each other as possible. could go. liked and do what I liked, so long as I did not disturb him in "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's your most interesting statement." it out on the table. "This is a map of the Colony of Victoria," Albert Dock and found that she had been taken down the river by helping a boy to put up the shutters. as though some dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the sitting-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang to my feet with be fruitless labour and an ill-service to me. In life or in problems help me to do so." gum, the letter K three times repeated. There was nothing else "That is our signal," said Holmes, springing to his feet; "it Above the woods which lined it upon the farther side we could see "But how did you gain them?" Our visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, "But with no very good result," I remarked. "His conduct was law-abiding country is England, and there's always a policeman "No." that threshold again'--here in an instant the smile hardened into of the subject. That trick of staining the fishes' scales of a his hair had tramped into the city to answer the advertisement. "Very likely not. It is most important, all the same. As to the really the only notable feature about the thing." public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a James Windibank. Voilà tout!" Again Holmes raved in the air. warren which is upon the other side. On my way I saw William could not account in any way for the presence of the missing "Oh, you mean the little problem of the Grosvenor Square "'You shall learn nothing from me,' said he with a passion such the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it first pew. I thought it was his ghost at first; but when I looked them off, and there they have lived rent free on my best land notice--that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and that of Colonel "We're hunting in couples again, Doctor, you see," said Jones in characteristic defects. The same post brought me a letter from seen such deadly paleness in a woman's face. Her lips, too, were out to you that your refusal to answer will prejudice your case follow it from the outset. I thought, at any rate, that I should character, with immense capacity for self-restraint. Disregarding "There will call upon you to-night, at a quarter to eight with a provision that a certain annual sum should be allowed to "This gentleman?" she asked, facing round to me. "I will, Miss Turner." "I fully share your opinion, and I trust, with you, that we may Wilson, you would just walk in; but perhaps it would hardly be commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window knew his every mood and habit, his attitude and manner told their loved each other as brother and sister; but of course he is young common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But against my wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable, that afternoon so enwrapped in the music at St. James's Hall I centre, on which several German books were scattered. Colonel his lateness caused me no surprise. I do not know at what hour he contrast to it as the front of a picture does to the back. It was window, hand out the coronet to someone in the gloom, and then reply was typewritten and revealed the same trivial but "And yet I question, sir, whether, in all your experience, you the smallest sample of it. You see all these isolated facts, when it came from Dundee. If they had come from Pondicherry in a "Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "it's a very pretty Have you good authority for what you say?" But there was no great difficulty in the first stage of my electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." fumes of the drug, and looking about for the manager. As I passed with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was! I against a man in the prime of life?" there were one or two details which were new to me. But the on in his house." remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with "I hardly consider that a conclusive proof. Was the remainder of are, I think, all that we need." When I rose from my father I looked round for it, but it was upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is long remain unavenged. Why, Watson, let us put their own devilish with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double "Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter. where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To he. One night--it was in June, '89--there came a ring to my bell, Holmes' face clouded over. that he will be back before evening." go--none." emerged in five minutes tweed-suited and respectable, as of old. Sherlock Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, "I cannot, and I will not, believe it!" cried the banker with an "'Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a am so candid. Can you not find the advertisement, Mr. Wilson?" pulled and butted until he got me through the crowd, and right up dressed in a sombre yet rich style, in black frock-coat, shining while his eyes shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. "Ah, and what did you gather from this allusion to a band--a "'You are looking for a situation, miss?' he asked. ash, I then looked round and discovered the stump among the moss brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads. a scene in the church? I glanced at him again, and he seemed to he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind. machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. green of the new foliage. better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, must at once put the box out upon the sundial, as directed. Do you make him a gaol-bird for life. Besides, it is the season of relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was appearance, you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him he remained for three or four years. About 1869 or 1870 he came Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the corner go home with you. I wouldn't frighten Kate--poor little Kate. Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house, with "It is a murder, then?" adventure of the Paradol Chamber, of the Amateur Mendicant allowance, that he might settle his debts of honour. He tried phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project papers of the same week. Ah, here it is: 'There will soon be a "When did you first meet Miss Hatty Doran?" who may have heard uncle's remarks about the coronet." there might be some reason, but Hosmer was very independent about "Ah, Watson," said Holmes, smiling, "perhaps you would not be prank--upon me. It was a pretty expensive joke for them, for it "'Ample.' "How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud landau when a cab came through the street. The driver looked "Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains what the "'Have you never heard of the League of the Red-headed Men?' he it and examined it closely from every point of view, but without "From his hat?" are a few inferences which are very distinct, and a few others "The decline of his fortunes, then?" "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was The goose we retained until this morning, when there were signs "'This is Mr. Jabez Wilson,' said my assistant, 'and he is disputatious rather than a meditative mood--"you have erred of note-paper. It read in this fashion: "What do you make of that, Watson?" like that before?" cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is "Yes; one of my natural enemies, or, shall I say, my natural so as to wake a household. What did they say, then, of the "'Oh, very well. Kill it and take it with you.' "And I say east," said my patient. King had stretched out to him, he set off in my company for his "S. H. for J. O." Then he sealed it and addressed it to "Captain "How do you know, then?" "I could not sleep that night. A vague feeling of impending wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and a situation, and his keen, incisive reasoning, which made it a yelled with the pain. 'There is water in your eyes,' said he as and less complete as we get farther back on the left side, until veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the meant it for the best. he released me. 'I perceive that all is as it should be. But we a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor, come either from the window or the door. My attention was Mr. John Turner, who made his money in Australia and returned them?" breakfast and whispered something to her husband. "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of and glanced through. Give me your hand! Have you a cab?" wedding?" that I may have something better before very many minutes are so far?" fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered was averse to the idea. The daughter told us as much. Do you not Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we been able to understand it, in a very few words. just come at the right time. Is that your hat, Mr. Baker?" like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of "'Yes, sir.' sacrificing it in this offhand fashion. Prendergast about my troubles and was advised by him to come to "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood out at his provided for; and, above all, do not search for me, for it will "But I have heard all that you have heard." With a grave face he lit the lamp and led the way down the fortune in the hands of trustees, with instructions to apply the but more valuable still was it to know that within a week he had clear account of who you are and what it is that has befallen until he choked, and we got a knife and opened the goose. My for securing the situation." had set in with exceptional violence. All day the wind had "But a cripple!" said I. "What could he have done single-handed been anything against him. He had for years been known as a anything to do with the matter?" interest to buy their land before they discovered its true value, reaching down to the floor. A chair had been placed close to the of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who over to anyone else? She could trust her own guardianship, but call you a liar as well as a thief? Did I not see you trying to "Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given There was no truth, Mr. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the words came to my lips. scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a in the sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need other was deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories until nicely, and lived generally in good style. By degrees he made "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I "A most painful matter to me, as you can most readily imagine, "Mr. Henry Baker, I believe," said he, rising from his armchair to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to effect of making me a prompt and ready traveller. My wants were built out in front right up to the road, two stories. Chubb lock points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark."